bachendri pal +

Transcription

bachendri pal +

The magazine for silver citizens
JUNE 2012 ` 30
anniversary
special
BACHENDRI PAL
+
SILVER
ACHIEVERS FORGE
NEW PATH
Cover Inside June 12.indd 2
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CONNECT
BEING
HUMAN
My interest in history, particularly the events of World
War II, prompted me to visit Dachau concentration
camp in Germany this May. The first camp established
by the Nazis—it opened on 22 March 1933—it served as
a prototype for the ones that followed. It was one of the
most unnerving experiences of my life to walk through
the camp, read the accounts of survivors and victims’
families, and absorb the candid exposition of the pogroms initiated by the Nazis. About 200,000 prisoners
were interned here, of whom two-thirds were political
prisoners and nearly one-third Jews. Over 25,000 prisoners are believed to have died here and almost 10,000 in its
sub-camps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. This was a mere prelude to the horrors evidenced at
extermination camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka.
It is incredible that such atrocities were perpetrated as
recently as the 20th century, while the world watched
mutely. It prompts much soul-searching, not just on this
shameful chapter but the vagaries of human nature.
Fortunately, just as the world has its villains, it also has
its heroes who rise above their histories, circumstances
and realities to transform their lives, and those of others. They restore our faith in humanity, which so often
lies in tatters, and impel us to view life through a prism
unclouded by fear or doubt, where hope shines radiant.
Suresh Natarajan
People are capable of reaching incredible heights—and
plumbing unfathomable depths.
ment can achieve when given free rein. We couldn’t find
a better way to celebrate—we trust you’ll agree after you
experience their astonishing, and empowering, journey.
Our journey has been equally empowering these past
eight years. Thank you for keeping the faith; we assure you
that we will continue to inform and inspire you through
all the activities of Harmony for Silvers Foundation.
Indeed, one such activity is the Harmony Senior Citizens’ Run; the latest edition was held at the TCS World
10K in Bengaluru on 27 May. A special thanks to renowned Kannada actor Sri Murali for being on hand to
cheer the participants. I would also like to acknowledge
the support of Procam International, Jivraj Tea, Abbott
Diabetes, SUD Life and, of course, the companies of the
Reliance Group for helping us make the event a success.
Most important, I salute the silvers who came out to be
counted—each one a symbol for the spirit of Harmony, a
flame that burns brighter by the day.
We feature eight such heroes for this eighth anniversary
issue of Harmony-Celebrate Age. Their stories are both
humbling and motivating, showing us what true commit-
A Harmony for Silvers Foundation Initiative
Harmony Celebrate Age—June 2012 Volume 9 Issue 1
Publisher Dharmendra Bhandari Editor Tina Ambani Deputy Editor Meeta Bhatti Associate Editor Arati Rajan Menon
Copy Editor Sai Prabha Kamath Correspondent (Mumbai) Radhika Raje Consultant Editor Malvika Singh Design Consultant Jit Ray
Studio Manager Haresh Patel Production Manager Rohidas Adavkar Graphic Designer Dattaguru Redekar
Visual Coordinator Anuradha Joshi Editorial Coordinator Divya Kotian Website Coordinator Ajit Nair
Assistant Vice-President, Business Development Shrenik Mehta Assistant Manager, Business Development Kumar Kislay
Editorial & Marketing Offices: Reliance Centre, 1st floor, 19, Walchand Hirachand Marg, Ballard Estate, Mumbai-400001. Tel: 91-22-30327108 (Editorial), 30327102
(Marketing). Email: [email protected] Printed and published by Dharmendra Bhandari on behalf of the owners, Harmony for Silvers Foundation
Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, 18-35, Milestone, Delhi-Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007 (Haryana). Published at Reliance Energy Centre, Santacruz (East),
Mumbai 400055. Disclaimer: The material provided by Harmony is not a substitute for professional opinions. Readers are advised to seek appropriate advice
from qualified and licensed professionals in the concerned field. © Harmony for Silvers Foundation. All rights reserved worldwide. Reproduction in any manner is
prohibited. Harmony does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material. www.harmonyindia.org
harmony celebrate age june 2012 1
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index
every issue
7 . ORBIT: News, views, people, research, trends and tips
from around the world
72 . ETCETERA: Culture, leisure, lifestyle, buzz and
miscellany
The Changing Tide
Mehmood Khan
60
Made in Mewat
Kallen Pokkudan
54
Seeds of Growth
Jose Maveli
48
Rewriting Destinies
Dr Pradip Kumar
Sarmah Bank of Ideas
38
The Driving Force
Anil Rajvanshi
32
Castles in Mud
Didi Contractor
26
High Energy
Bachendri Pal
20
Dr Saraswathy
Ganapathy
8
Volume 9 Issue 1
68
WEB EXCLUSIVES www.harmonyindia.org
• LIGHT OF LIFE J C Seth on how only education
can help build a nation
• GOAL MINE Down memory lane with football
coach and Olympian S S Narayanan
columns
14 . NUTRITION: Anjali Mukerjee on how soy can help
battle menopausal symptoms
16 . WEIGHT WATCH: Madhukar Talwalkar illustrates
exercises for stronger legs
18 . YOGA RX: Yoga can help you love yourself and life.
Shameem Akthar shows you how
FOR SUBSCRIPTION ASSISTANCE CONTACT: Harmonycare, Living Media India Ltd, A-61, Sector 57, Noida (Uttar Pradesh) - 201301.
Toll-free: 1800 1800 100 Phones: New Delhi: (0120) 2479900 from Delhi and Faridabad; (0120) 2479900 from Rest of India Fax: (0120)
4078080; Kolkata: 033-22827695 Fax: 22828949; Bengaluru: 080-2212448, 22213037, Fax: 2218335; Mumbai: 022-66063355 Fax:
24444358; Chennai: 044-28478525 Fax: 24361942; Email: [email protected]
2
harmony celebrate age june 2012
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RESPONSE
column
one
All journeys are inevitably linked
to experiences and evolution. So it
is with Harmony-Celebrate Age’s
passage. In the past eight years, the
magazine has lit the walkway for its
readers by presenting ‘role-model’
lives of common people. They weren’t
born with silver spoons; sometimes
they weren’t even lucky to go to
school. Yet they broke ground and
touched horizons where ‘possible’
met ‘impossible’ in an indistinct line.
So what better way to celebrate our
anniversary than with people who
make Harmony-Celebrate Age such a
success! Leading the special is the expert on heights, Bachendri Pal (“High
Energy”), the first Indian woman to
have scaled Mount Everest. A feat par
excellence, it instantly put Pal on a
historical pedestal. Joining the leader
are seven other social contributors:
81 year-old Didi Contractor (“Castles
in Mud”) near Dharamshala is fighting
urbanisation in the hills with her mud
houses; 58 year-old Mehmood Khan
(“Made in Mewat”) closed his corporate chapter abroad to resuscitate his
roots in Haryana; 61 year-old Jose
Maveli (“Rewriting Destinies”) took a
leaf out of his own life in an orphanage to start one for destitute kids;
69 year-old Dr Saraswathy Ganapathy
(“The Changing Tide”) gave up her
practice as a paediatrician to work for
rural women in Karnataka; 82 year-old
Kallen Pokkudan (“Seeds of Growth”)
is a sturdy example of life just like the
mangroves he has planted in Kerala;
Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah (“Bank of
Ideas”) is indeed a bank of innovations
as is 62 year-old Anil Rajvanshi (“The
Driving Force”), both working overtime to make life in rural Assam and
Maharashtra easier. The way is clear.
There will be anniversaries and we will
grow, but our support structure will
remain the same. Eternally silver!
—Meeta Bhatti
4
Y
our well-known magazine,
Harmony, which flashes the tag
line ‘Celebrate Age’ on its cover, has
built a reputation of its own over
the years. The team has also coined
the term ‘silver’ to address senior
citizens. I strongly feel that, in years
to come, it will become important
to reduce the age limit for classifying someone as a senior citizen.
At present, women and men have
different eligibility criteria to qualify
as ‘silvers’. I think this disparity also
should be removed.
Wipro has slashed jobs. HSBC has
culled over 2,000 jobs in the recent
past. The less said about the fate of
employees in sole-proprietorship
firms, the better. Some Kingfisher
employees are battling between life
and death considering the hopeless
situation they have got into. Another
company in Bengaluru has not paid
its employees’ salaries for more than
six months but has outrageously
asked them to leave without any
notice period or ex gratia. The regional unit of a courier and logistics
company that operates worldwide is
in the process of shutting down its
operations. Capt Gopinath started a
logistics firm only to shut down its
operations overnight. The impact of
what happens in countries like the
US and UK and the Middle East is
severely felt by the Indian economy.
Job security has become a mirage.
On one hand, overworked executives fall prey to lifestyle diseases
while on the other, the hire-and-fire
policy of many organisations makes
people age faster owing to stress,
worry, anxiety and tension. Being
unemployed is worse than death
as people fall into a vicious cycle of
depression, agony and self-pity.
In the above situation, when people
are forced to retire early or struggle
to make both ends meet (owing to
unexpected circumstances), and
where their survival becomes a
question mark, it is unfair to exclude
them from getting certain social
benefits just because they haven’t
reached a certain age. But is there a
way out of this? Absolutely not. This
is because besides ‘age’ there are no
other criteria to classify someone as
a senior citizen.
For example, imagine the plight of a
former colleague of mine (45 years
old) who collapsed one fine morning
after he was unable to cope with the
fact that he was about to lose his job.
He suffered a massive heart attack
and underwent open heart surgery.
The organisation where he worked
hadn’t paid the premium for the insurance policy and he had not taken
sufficient health cover. His spouse
wasn’t well-educated and the family
literally pawned all its jewellery to
meet the hospitalisation expenses.
A month after the operation, the
colleague died leaving his family
physically and financially drained.
His only daughter studies in Class
VI. During his last days, my colleague was hurt at the treatment
meted to him and dejected that he
would not be able to find another
job owing to his sickness. Ironically,
the entrepreneur was celebrating his
birthday in a five-star hotel the day
my colleague died.
Because of instances such as these,
people tend to age faster. Isn’t it a bit
of an irony that even as advances in
medical technology have improved
longevity, the stress levels in the
corporate world snuff out the lives
of people much before their prime?
Does anyone have a solution at all?
G Venkatesh Bengaluru
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5/25/12 7:40 PM
get a loan against your house,
live in it and get paid every month
9am to 5pm
5/25/12 7:40 PM
INSIDE
P16: Get a leg up!
P18: Yoga loves you
RBIT
NEWS ● VIEWS ● PEOPLE ● RESEARCH ● TRENDS ● TIPS
►ANALYSE THIS
Nice, and attractive
T
he next time someone (unfairly) equates age with
rudeness, tell them this: people actually become
kinder, more conscientious and agreeable with
age. What’s more, they also seek those same qualities
in a mate. That’s the verdict of a new global study by City
University of New York's Queen's College, which documents
shifts in attraction over a lifespan. After studying almost
18,000 heterosexual adults worldwide ranging from the age
of 18 to 95, they found that people became more agreeable
and conscientious as they aged, and found those traits
most attractive when evaluating possible partners from the
opposite sex. “While trendiness and superficially sexy looks
got tongues wagging among younger adults, we uncovered a
shift in desire toward more communal traits, like sensitivity,
friendliness and compassion, with the progression of time,”
writes lead author Claudia Brumbaugh in journal Social
Psychological and Personality Science. “It seems to happen
gradually; for every year you age, the kinder you get and the
more you like these features in others. But now our findings
bring into question why that happens. Do we just become
nicer naturally or do we become that way because the other
sex demands it?” A chicken-and-egg question that.
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RBIT . TRENDS
MAXIMUM CITIES
A
city is not just geographical
space but an organic entity that
has the power to nourish its
residents, or conversely hamper their
growth. After analysing data from
28 million people, American website
Real Age (realage.com) recently revealed its top anti-ageing cities that
‘helped’ citizens stay young through
factors ranging from climate and
healthy lifestyle options to amenities
and a low crime rate.
Here’s the list:
1. San Francisco, California
2. Salt Lake City, Utah
3. San Diego, California
4. Minneapolis-St Paul, Minnesota
5. Denver, Colorado
6. Raleigh, North Carolina
7. Boston, Massachusetts
8. Austin, Texas
9. Washington, D C/Baltimore,
Maryland
10. Los Angeles, California
On the flip side, here are the 10 cities
where residents grow old the fastest:
1. Knoxville, Tennessee
2. Louisville, Kentucky
3. Memphis, Tennessee
4. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
5. Indianapolis, Indiana
6. Greensboro, North Carolina
7. Nashville, Tennessee
8. Greenville, South Carolina
9. Cincinnati, Ohio
10. Columbus, Ohio
Asia on age
What does Asia think about getting
older? As Asia News Network reports,
Singapore-based Brand's Brain Research Centre studied 1,800 people between the ages of 25 and 49 from eight
Asian countries—China, Hong Kong,
Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand—and asked
them just that. Here are
their top findings:
• About 79 per cent
believed the brain, heart
and bones were the top
three parts of the body
that needed to be protected from the effects of ageing.
• About 84 per cent responded that
they would use anti-ageing cream to
8
protect themselves from degeneration
symptoms. This was followed by maintaining a healthy and balanced diet
(83 per cent); getting enough sleep
(71 per cent); and taking anti-ageing
supplements (49 per cent).
• While respondents in Singapore,
Malaysia and Taiwan said brain deterioration was their main
worry, followed by reduced physical function
and increased chance of
cardiovascular disease,
Thai respondents pointed
to ageing of the skin and
wrinkles as their primary worry, followed by reduced physical function and
deterioration of vision.
OVER 50 PER CENT OF
PEOPLE OVER THE AGE
OF 50 IN EUROPE WILL
HAVE TO SAVE MORE AND
WORK WELL INTO THEIR
70s IF THEY WANT AN
ADEQUATE INCOME IN
RETIREMENT, ACCORDING
TO A REPORT BY THE
UK-BASED PENSIONS
POLICY INSTITUTE.
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CUTTING EDGE .
RBIT
Granny Nav
I
n a bid to keep silvers on the road safer—and
longer—the UK’s Research Council is engaged
in a £ 12 million programme in conjunction with
Newcastle University’s ‘Intelligent Transport’ team.
To learn the challenges faced by older drivers, the
team has converted an electric car into a mobile laboratory called DriveLAB, decked out with tracking systems,
eye-motion detectors and bio-monitors as well as night vision systems and intelligent speed technology. One of the
first technologies to emerge as a result of this project is a
navigation system, nicknamed ‘Granny Nav’ by the British press, which uses pictures of common landmarks like
pubs and mail boxes as visual turning cues and helps avoid
right turns, which make silvers uncomfortable as they are
not confident about judging the speed of oncoming traffic. “For many older people, particularly those living alone
or in rural areas, driving is essential for maintaining their
independence, giving them the freedom to get out and
about without having to rely on others,” study leader Phil
Blythe tells the BBC. “But we all have to accept that as we
get older our reactions slow down, and this often results in
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people avoiding any potentially challenging driving conditions and losing confidence in their driving skills. We are
looking at ways to keep people driving safely for longer to
help boost independence among the elderly and keep them
socially connected.”
5/25/12 7:41 PM
RBIT . MEDIA WATCH
ABUSE
ON AIR
LAST YEAR, when Jane Worroll
hid a camera in her mother Maria’s
room at Ash Court Care Centre in
Kentish Town, London, she expected
the worst—and got it. The footage
revealed that the 80 year-old was being repeatedly beaten by a member
of staff. While the 30 year-old man
in question has already been jailed
for assault (and four of his female
colleagues fired for negligence), the
footage was aired on TV sets across
the UK in late April on an episode of
the BBC’s investigative programme
Panorama titled Undercover: Elderly Care. The irony, as the presenters
of the show pointed out, was that the
Care Quality Commission, the watchdog for care homes in the UK, had
awarded Ash Court Care Centre an
‘excellent’ rating just three months before the attacks were filmed. The silver
lining: the footage has caused a furore
across the UK, with advocates for the
elderly calling for more comprehensive monitoring of care homes in the
country. Meanwhile, Maria Worroll
has shifted to a different home.
TWO GOOD
H
ere’s proof that passion always wins
out over physical limitations. Iconic
American country singers Kenny
Rogers (left) and Glen Campbell, who clock
a combined age of 150 and a century of music
between them, will perform in a series of
concerts in Australia and New Zealand this
fall. The announcement is all the more remarkable considering that Campbell, 76, recently
revealed that he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, while Rogers, 74, has waged a long battle
against osteoarthritis, specifically problems
with his knee and back. Rock on, guys!
10 harmony celebrate age june 2012
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MEDIA WATCH .
USE IT: WE ALL KNOW THAT
AN ACTIVE BRAIN IS THE KEY
TO KEEPING ALZHEIMER’S
AND DEMENTIA AT BAY.
CHECK OUT THE ‘ACTIVITY
TOOL KIT’ ON WWW.
OLDERAMERICANSMONTH.
AOA.GOV FOR SOME
FABULOUS IDEAS ON
KEEPING THOSE GREY CELLS
TICKING OVERTIME, FROM
INTERGENERATIONAL GAMES
AND TRIVIAL PURSUIT TO
GAMING AND
PUZZLES
APLENTY.
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RBIT
Legacy
lessons
W
hen we speak of legacy, it is
usually an amorphous and
ephemeral concept; here’s a
way to make it concrete. Unburied
Treasure: A Guide to Leaving Your
Legacy (WestBow Press; 108 pages), by
former American police officer turned
Christian minister Catherine Torrez, is
a user-friendly guide to record your
legacy for posterity. From formats and writing prompts, chapter options and
dedicated space for photographs and your family tree, it is the best possible
handhold for both new and seasoned writers who have a story to tell for future
generations. “It’s a great gift idea for parents and grandparents,” says Torrez in
a media release. “I truly believe that the minds of our senior citizens are our
greatest treasures, especially if they are our relatives. They should take the time
to write their legacy—their thoughts, advice, memories—and pass it on to their
children. That is what inspired me to write this guide book.” You can order a
copy in India at www.amazon.com
5/25/12 7:41 PM
RBIT . PEOPLE
BIRTHDAYS
MILESTONES
l Ghazal legend Pankaj
Udhas (right) turned
61 on 17 May.
l The male protagonist of many
a Satyajit Ray screen fable, Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee,
77, was conferred the Dadasaheb
Phalke Award on 3 May.
l Legendary British actorturned-writer and romantic
author Jackie Collins’s elder
sister Joan Collins turned
79 on 23 May.
l Actor Morgan Freeman,
who proved his mettle in
Shawshank Redemption among
scores of other movies, turned
74 on 1 June.
l America’s 41st President George
Bush turns 87 on 12 June.
l The University of South
Florida felicitated Infosys chief
mentor Narayan Murthy (right)
with the Global Leadership
Award and the Free Enterprise
Award on 15 May.
l English cricket umpire Dickie Bird was made an Officer
of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 16 May. The
79 year-old was presented the medal by Prince Charles. At
the ceremony, Bird spoke of the high of on-field umpiring, much before camera umpiring changed the game.
l Beatles singer Paul McCartney
(left) turns 69 on 18 June.
IN PASSING
l Vidal Sassoon, the man and name behind the globally
popular salon products, died
at 84 of leukaemia in Los
Angeles on 9 May.
l American singer-songwriter Donna Summer (right),
popularly known as the ‘disco
queen’, died of cancer on
17 May. She was 63.
OVERHEARD
“Being 50 and the way I’ve been able to lead my life
is not anywhere as bad as the idea of being 50! You
don’t feel the pressure of having to look perfect or
conform to a certain image. I’m able to play
characters I would have been scared to play when I
was younger. Now I’m able to leave my safety net.”
—Michelle Pfeiffer, 55, in the UK edition of
OK! magazine
l Australian band Bee
Gees singer Robin Gibb
(left) succumbed to
cancer on 20 May. He
was 62. Robin’s twin
brother and partner in
the Bee Gees Maurice
died in 2003.
l Eugene Polley, the inventor of the TV remote control,
passed away on 20 May in Chicago. He was 96. He had
also invented the video disc, the predecessor of the DVD.
l Flinder Anderson Khonglam, former chief minister
of Meghalaya and the country’s first independent MLA to
become a chief minister, passed away in Shillong on
22 May after a brief illness. He was 67.
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EATING RIGHT BY ANJALI MUKERJEE
Golden rule: Soy can combat menopausal symptoms
I am reaching menopause and suffering from
indescribable physical and emotional changes.
I am told that I can combat some of these
changes by eating right. Please help with a
specific diet plan.
Menopause can mean different things to different women—each woman’s journey is unique. Many women experience some discomfort about three to four years before
menopause (peri-menopause), when there is a notable
decline in hormone production. This proves to be a very
difficult time.
The discomfort may be mild, moderate or severe because
of delayed and/or irregular periods, which could further
be scanty or heavy. Some women experience depression,
mood swings and reduced sex drive. This may affect their
personal life and relationship with close friends. A fortunate few experience no significant changes and live their
whole lives without any discomfort.
Why do some women experience more menopausal
discomfort than others?
Although symptoms depend on hormone levels and genetics, women who are vegetarian tend to experience fewer
menopausal symptoms. This could be because vegetarians
consume more grains, pulses and legumes that contain
compounds called phyto-oestrogens. Phyto-oestrogens
are weak plant oestrogens that have only a
fraction of the strength of true oestrooestro
gen but help reduce menopausal
symptoms. Japanese women
consume a lot of soy prodprod
ucts; soybeans are the
richest food source of
phyto-oestrogen. It
has been observed
by Herman Aldercreutz, a famous
researcher of soy,
that menopausal
symptoms are less
in Japanese and
Indonesian women compared to
women in the West.
Several other clinical
studies show lower inciinci
dence of menopausal symptoms owing to increased intake
of soy foods.
How does soybean help?
Soybean actually works like an anti-ageing pill. It contains
isoflavones like genistein and daidzein that have a positive effect on bone health, sex drive, heart disease, vaginal
dryness, depression, insomnia, etc. Genistein in soy is a
potent antioxidant with anti-cancer activity. Soy helps
lower cholesterol and triglycerides, and regulates blood
sugar levels. Therefore, it plays a definite role in prevention of heart disease in post-menopausal women. Phytooestrogens in soybean seem to work their magic in preventing fragile bones and osteoporosis as well. Consuming
soy in the form of soymilk or soy flour helps build strong
bones. Women approaching menopause should consume
at least 100-150 gm of soybeans everyday in one way or
the other. You could consume it in the form of soy flour
mixed with wheat flour to make chapatti, soy milk or tofu.
Soy biscuits and soy nuts are available in the market and
act as a healthy snack between meals. Soybeans can be
cooked as dal and consumed regularly. Every gram of soy
protein contains at least 1-2 mg of isoflavone—the miracle
component that appears to have a beneficial effect on
menopausal symptoms.
It is important to note that soybeans need not be consumed
only by menopausal women. The earlier you start consuming soy, the more benefits you can derive from it. Soy is
almost a miracle food for women as it seems to ad
address most pre and post-menopausal prob
problems. Along with consuming soybeans,
a low-fat diet rich in natural foods
such as whole grains, fruits,
vegetables, nuts and pulses
helps prevent most hor
hormone-related problems.
Eat right
The most important
dietary advice for all
menopausal women is
to increase their intake
of foods that are rich in
phyto-oestrogens. They
are present in virtually
every plant. Most fruits
and vegetables like onions,
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READERS
ASK
Soybean actually works like an
anti-ageing pill. It contains isoflavones
like genistein and daidzein that have
a positive effect on bone health,
sex drive, heart disease, vaginal
dryness, depression and insomnia
I am 80 years old and have been on a pureed
diet because of problems in chewing and
swallowing. However, with the monotonous routine,
I am also losing interest in food. How can I keep
my diet interesting while continuing to consume
pureed food?
A pureed diet is critical to meet nutritional needs
without causing any discomfort. It is important to
maintain healthy nutrition for good health. For this,
you must include a variety of food groups including
fruits and vegetables, proteins, grains and dairy products in your diet. Many people think that being limited
to soft food is restrictive, but you can really eat well
by being on this diet. You can puree almost any food.
The use of herbs and spices, tomatoes, lemon juice and
sauces adds flavour to food. Avoid using too much salt,
though. Make meal time special by laying the table
and presenting food in an attractive way.
Here are some recipes to break the monotony:
apples, carrots, and grapes contain small quantities of
plant oestrogens. Most beans contain higher quantities of
plant oestrogen—rajma, kabuli channa, black whole urad
dal, chowli, moth, matki, sprouted mung beans are all good
sources of phyto-oestrogens. However, the richest sources
of plant oestrogen are soybean, flaxseed, and sesame, sunflower, pumpkin and methi seeds.
Diet wisdom for menopause
l
Eat at least one phyto-oestrogen rich food everyday (for
instance, soybeans, flaxseed, sesame seeds, etc).
l
Drink a glass of carrot juice every day. It provides you
with calcium and phyto-oestrogen.
l
Just a quarter cup of roasted soy nuts contains your
daily requirement of phyto-oestrogen.
l
Eat a bowl of sprouted mung everyday.
l
Eat more whole dal, beans, fruits, vegetables, nuts
and seeds.
l
A bowl of low-fat yoghurt will keep your bones young.
l
Limit your intake of caffeine, aerated drinks and alcohol as they leach out the much required calcium from
your body.
l
Don’t smoke.
l
Lead an active life—a sedentary lifestyle adversely
affects bone mass.
These recommendations will require a few changes in your
present lifestyle. Women should be educated about their
bodies so they are able to make the necessary changes well
in advance.
BREAKFAsT
l
Eggs and toast: Heat milk in a saucepan. Add
beaten eggs and simmer until cooked. Put this mixture
and toast into a blender. Blend until smooth.
l
Yoghurt fruit drink: Mix yoghurt, honey, fruits
like apple, peach, banana and a dash of cinnamon and
blend together.
l
Dry cereal and milk: Mix dry cereals like cornflakes,
muesli, wheat flakes with milk and sugar. Blend
together.
LUNCH
l
Pureed rice: Puree rice and enjoy with strong
flavoured gravies of varieties like paneer, tofu and
beans.
l
Chicken and noodles: Blend chunks of chicken with
potatoes, noodles and chicken broth.
DINNER
l
Macaroni with cheese: Blend baked macaroni with
cheese and hot milk.
l
Blended vegetables: Blend cooked vegetables with
vegetable broth and add herbs and seasonings.
Occasionally, you can also enjoy desserts like blended
fruits with whipped cream, and cake with ice cream.
Do not limit yourself to planned foods and milkshakes.
Experiment and enjoy!
Dr Anjali Mukerjee is a nutritionist and founder of
Health Total, which has 15 centres in Mumbai to
treat obesity and other health related disorders.
Visit www.health-total.com
If you have a question for Dr Mukerjee write to
[email protected]
97-04 orbit.indd 15
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WEIGHT WATCH BY MADHUKAR TALWALKAR
Leg-up: Stronger muscles for the long run
I am a skinny 75 year-old. I have noticed
that my legs start trembling when I walk
fast or try to run. I am scared of falling and
suffering a fracture. Please suggest some
leg and calf-strengthening exercises that
I can do at home.
Leg exercises help maintain balance and stability and,
therefore, prevent falls. Begin each leg exercise with eight
repetitions and increase gradually. To add to the effectiveness, use leg weights or durable resistance exercise bands
(both available at sports equipment stores).
WARNING: Always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise programme. Stop exercising immediately if you feel any symptoms such as shortness of breath
or dizziness.
Your legs carry you places, and provide you with a way to
get around. Many people do not know the importance of
legs until something unexpected restricts them. It is important to build limb strength with the help of leg strengthening exercises. In fact, leg muscles are the fastest in your
body to respond to training. It’s not only cardio that defines
and shapes your legs—in combination, one needs to do exercises specifically designed for legs.
Here are a few exercises that can be done at home:
Lunges
Lunges are best for exercising leg muscles with one simple
move. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Take one
giant step forward with your right foot. Place your hands
on the hips for balance. Now, lower your body straight
down until your back leg forms a right angle at the knee.
Raise yourself up slowly using your leg muscles and repeat
the movement for three sets of 30 repetitions for each leg.
You can start with fewer repetitions—in fact, as many as
you can manage and increase only gradually. If you have
knee pain, take a smaller step forward and drop down as
far as comfortable. While lunges are the best leg exercises,
they can be challenging for people with bad knees.
Squats
Squats work your glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves, all
at once. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, toes facing
straight ahead or angled slightly outward. Slowly bend the
97-04 orbit.indd 16
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knees and lower hips towards the floor, keeping your
torso straight and abs pulled in tight. Keep your knees
behind your toes; make sure everything is pointing in
the same direction. Do not go lower than 90°. Do these
thrice a week (alternate days) for 12-16 reps or less to
begin with. Quadriceps extension
This exercise works the top-front of your thigh. Sit up
straight in a chair with knees bent and both feet flat on
the floor. Place weights on your ankles or wrap exercise
bands around both ankles. Tighten your abdominal muscles. Extend the right leg until the knee is straight but not
locked. Then, lower the right foot slowly down. Perform
at least one set for each leg.
Knee flex
Stand up straight and hold on to a table or sturdy chair
for balance. Keeping the upper part of your leg straight,
bend one knee, raising your foot behind you. Lower the
foot, and then repeat with the other leg. Keep your back
straight and don’t lean on the chair. Outer thigh exercise
This exercise works the top outside of the thigh. Sit up
straight and tighten your abdominal muscles. You can
wear ankle weights or wrap the exercise band around
both knees. Keep the left knee bent and the left foot flat
on the floor. Extend your right leg straight but do not
lock the knee. Bring your right leg out to the side and
then back to the centre. Keep the leg at hip height the
entire duration. This is a sideways movement. Avoid
swinging the hips or leg. Perform at least one set for
each leg. Heel raises
Heel raises are one of the best leg exercises because they
can be done anywhere without attracting odd glances
from strangers. This exercise targets calf muscles, which
are a problem area for many people. Calves respond to
strengthening very quickly and get in shape very quickly.
Therefore this is the best leg exercise for people who
want fast results.
Stand with your feet wider than shoulder-width. Place
your hands on hips for balance. Raise your body onto
your tiptoes and hold for a few seconds. Gradually come
back to the original position. Repeat this exercise for
three sets of 40 heel raises. When you are ready for a bigger challenge, stand on the step of a staircase or sturdy
elevated surface and allow your heels to hang off the
edge. Raise and lower your body slowly for three sets of
25 repetitions. This works the calves immediately.
Madhukar Talwalkar is chairman of Talwalkar’s,
one of India’s largest chain of fitness centres
with 78 branches across major cities.
Website: www.talwalkars.net
If you have a question for him write to
[email protected]
Inner thigh lift
This exercise works the top inner part of your thigh. Sit
up straight and tighten your abdominal muscles. You can
wear ankle weights or wrap the exercise band around
both ankles. Keep the left knee bent and the left foot
flat on the floor. Let your right knee fall out to the side,
so you are turning your right leg out. Lift the right heel
straight up as high as you can without rounding through
the back. Keep the knee out to the side and the inside of
your foot lifting straight up. Slowly lower it. Perform at
least one set for each leg.
Hamstring curl
This exercise works the top back of your thigh. Sit up
straight in a chair with knees bent and both feet flat on
the floor. Place weights on your ankles or wrap the exercise band around both ankles. Tighten your abdominal
muscles. Keeping the left foot still, pull the right heel underneath the chair. Then bring it back, so the knee comes
to a 90° angle; then lightly place your right heel on the
floor. Perform at least one set for each leg.
97-04 orbit.indd 17
5/25/12 7:42 PM
YOGA RX BY SHAMEEM AKTHAR
Feel the love flow: Explore the love-yoga connection
In yoga, love actually is spread out over several chakras:
love for money and other things needed for survival is said
to lie at the base chakra, sensual love at the second one,
self-love the third, and unconditional love for humanity at
the fourth chakra. Intriguingly, when you shear off the psychic language of yoga, you will find that there is amazing
correspondence between the glands located at the precise
spots where these chakras are said to be. Perhaps the yogis
were talking of hormones and neurochemicals of these
centres when they used the language or description that
appears strange to us.
Oxytocin is called the love hormone by scientists. It is also
referred to as the cuddle hormone because it is the feelgood factor that comes from a comforting embrace. This
hormone linked to the reproductive system is also the one
that bonds. Further, it has attendant feelings that we take
as side-effects of love: jealousy, possessiveness and aggression that these feelings initiate. That may be why the yogis
suggested we work the pelvic region to regulate this hor-
mone so it flows smoothly without the hiccups of negativities that trail deep love.
When oxytocin reception in the body is messed up, we feel
loveless or harbour the disturbing side-effects of love—
which, according to research by an Israeli university, can
even make you gloat when somebody fails. When oxytocin
is flowing well, though, it extends the feeling of love not
just to one’s partner or family, but to the community and
society as a whole. All the poses that work the hip and pelvic region work on regulating this fragile but powerful hormone. The lying leg locked pose (supta baddha konasana),
half spinal twist (ardha matsyendrasana), lying energy
release pose (supta pawan muktasana), drawing the bow
pose (akhardhanurasana), happy baby pose (anandbalasana), and hip rolls (shronichakra) in all their variations are
the most commonly used ones. Interestingly, these poses
are simple to learn and are used as the first stage or preparatory poses to other advanced practices. It seems yoga has
made love regulation an easy task!
YOGIC MOVES
Happy baby pose (anandabalasana)
anandabalasana)
Lie on your back. Lift your
right leg up. Fold it at the
knee. Place your right hand
at the sole of the foot, at the
spot where the foot curves in.
Flare the right knee sideways.
Press down the right foot
firmly, so the knee moves
closer to the ground. It will
cause an intense stretch
initially. See that the
lower leg is not dropping
to either side, but remains
upright. Hold the pressure
for about 15 seconds initially.
Ensure the left leg is not lifted
up when you do this. Release
the right foot, straighten the
leg and drop it gently down.
Repeat for the left leg. After
regular practice, you may
increase the duration in the
final pose for a minute or
more. Also you can do this
for both legs together, which is
more intense.
Benefits: This pose works the hip
region strongly and works on the
entire reproductive tract. It is said
to power the reproductive region and
repair problems there. It spikes the
mood, giving a high, and tones the
legs. It also prepares you for other
more advanced meditative and
balancing poses.
Model: Mangala Pathak,
Harmony Interactive Centre
Photographer: Haresh Patel
Shameem Akthar is a
Mumbai-based yoga acharya
If you have any queries for her,
mail us or email at
contact.mag@harmonyindia.
org (Please consult your physician
before following advice given here)
97-04 orbit.indd 18
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97-07 Bachindri Pal.indd 20
5/25/12 7:43 PM
8
✒ Radhika Raje
Shivay Bhandari
HIGH ENERGY Despite having achieved
the pinnacle of her career, Bachendri Pal
tells Harmony-Celebrate Age she has many
mountains left to climb
She has scaled unprecedented heights—
literally. But Padma Shri and Arjuna Award
winner Bachendri Pal, the first Indian woman
to scale Everest, is equally comfortable on
terra firma, tending her beautiful home and
gardens in Jamshedpur, and mothering the
many underprivileged children she has taken
under her wing as part of her commitment to
empower women. In fact, as she speaks to
Harmony-Celebrate Age, you can hear them
trying to grab her attention. “Can’t blame the
kids,” she says with a chuckle, “I hardly get
time to be at home.” Indeed, as head of the
Tata Steel Adventure Foundation, Pal travels
extensively to organise training camps in
her beloved mountainous terrain. And driven
by a need to motivate others to follow their
passions, she is also in the process of writing
a book—her second—on her own Himalayan
adventures. Propelled by a sense of self-belief
so strong it shines through every word she
speaks, this 58 year-old says with utter
conviction, “I can still climb Everest as many
times as I want. It’s all about your mental
outlook.” We couldn’t agree more.
IN HER OWN WORDS
After I scaled Everest, I realised I was
chasing all the wrong things earlier. I learnt
so many things education couldn’t have taught
me. Every minute of the expedition was a
lesson of its own where aspects like teamwork,
awareness and disaster management assumed
so much importance. My education only
taught me to pass exams with good marks; the
expedition taught me how to lead a good life.
I discovered so much about myself in that
one trip, my strengths and weaknesses. On
23 May 1984, I became the first Indian woman
to climb Everest; it was the best gift I could
have received for my birthday, which came a
day later.
I want to chronicle every journey to let
people know that nothing is impossible.
I am in the process of publishing a book that
will speak about my travels and achievements.
It will mainly focus on the First Indian Women
Trans-Himalayan Expedition, which was undertaken by an eight-woman team in 1997.
5/25/12 7:43 PM
“EVERYBODY IN THE VILLAGE THOUGHT I WAS ‘RISKING’ MY LIFE WITH MOUNTAINEERING; THEY WOULD
HAVE RATHER SEEN ME MARRIED. INDIRA GANDHI FLAGGED OFF MY EVENT AND THAT GAVE ME A
CHANCE TO MEET HER ONE-ON-ONE. IT WAS THE MOST UNFORGETTABLE DAY OF MY LIFE. SHE ALSO
ASKED ME TO HELP OTHER WOMEN PURSUE THEIR CAREERS AND PASSIONS....AND I HAVE ALWAYS
BELIEVED THAT IF A WOMAN IS STRONG, THE WHOLE COUNTRY WILL BE STRONG”
This was the first journey where civilians were
allowed to participate. We trekked across
4,500 km via Siachen glacier. I can still
remember the days that went into preparing
for it. Those were exciting times and I have
mentioned them all in my book. It speaks
about everything that me and my team underwent in the seven-month-long journey.
It took me months to put a full stop to
my last sentence. There was just so much to
write! I am hoping the book encourages many
more people to take up activities that interest
them. I will release the book as soon as the
editing process is complete. I am looking
forward to it. My last book Everest, My Journey
was published in 1988. I remember it being a
huge success; many people were motivated by
my experiences. The book was later republished in 11 different languages.
Everest 84 also helped me meet my role
model, Indira Gandhi. As a student, I would
see her come to my village for political
campaigns. I was mesmerised by her aura, her
presence and her passion. It was a refreshing
change to look up to a woman who was out
there pursuing her passion compared to the
people I met daily in my village. Everybody
in the village thought I was ‘risking’ my life
with mountaineering; they would have rather
seen me married. Indira Gandhi flagged off
my event and that gave me a chance to meet
her one-on-one. It was the most unforgettable
day of my life. She also asked me to help other
women pursue their careers and passions.
I absolutely understood what she meant.
I have had to compete constantly with men.
And I have always believed that if a woman is
strong, the whole country will be strong.
Some people call me ‘feminist’ but I am
only trying to give women in India the
opportunities they deserve. I have received
so much in life; it’s time I give back to
society. I take care of children who are not as
privileged as you and I. I make sure they get
the kind of education they need. At any given
5/25/12 7:43 PM
point of time, I have at least four to five girls
staying with me. Sometimes I have 10 kids
running around the house.
Taking care of a child is even more difficult
than climbing Everest! After graduation,
these kids decide their own future and I let
them fly out of my nest. Times are definitely
changing with women in India becoming
increasingly empowered. But in a few areas, it
is still an alien concept. Girls are still expected
to get married and not have a career. I come
from the same background so it makes me
happy that I am giving back what I received.
My father is my hero; he taught me the
meaning of strong will and determination.
When he realised how important mountaineering was for me, he would help me practise
by putting stones in my bag and making me
climb. He came to Uttarakhand from a remote
village in Uttar Pradesh and started his life
from scratch. He had big dreams. After the
border was open, he initiated cross-border
trading and farming. His life was built on two
pillars: honesty and hard work. One look at
him and you know that any person who followed these virtues led a happy, satisfied life.
My childhood was a constant struggle
against the norms and rules of society. We
were a big family of two brothers and three
sisters; I was the third child. Being conservative, my parents always gave priority to my
brothers but they loved me. I was expected to
stop studying in the eighth grade so my brothers could study further. But my sole ambition
was education. My mother told me that girls
should excel in housework, so I decided
to do both. I would finish all the housework
and then sit and study. For days, I toiled and
struggled; finally, I was allowed to continue
my studies. Again, when it came to higher
education, voices were raised. But I was an excellent student and was taking my housework
seriously. My brother managed to convince my
father to let me study further.
I was an absolute nerd. Even though I played
sports throughout my school and college life,
I never gave them as much importance as
education. I completed my bachelor’s degree
in education in Uttarkashi. During those
days, I was among the first few girls to have
received a degree in my village; everybody was
exhilarated. This acceptance enabled me to
BEYOND EVEREST
Bachendri Pal shares some other favourite milestones
“During my course of mountaineering I got a chance to mount
Gangotri (21,900 ft) and Rudugaria (19,091 ft). Those were
very basic climbs but the fact that I was a part of something so
extravagant made me so happy. I even got employed at National
Adventure Foundation after these expeditions.
“In 1993, I led an Indo-Nepalese Everest Expedition with an
all-woman team. During those days, it was seen as a change in
society; some sort of development. This is what I call true women’s
empowerment.”
“I was a part of the River Ganga rafting expedition that began at
Hardwar and went all the way to Kolkata in 1994.”
“It was a proud moment when I received an honorary doctorate from
the University of Garhwal in the wake of all the work I have done.”
finish my post-graduation in the same subject
later in Dehradun.
Unemployment was my first baby step
towards mountaineering. Soon after all the
celebrations died down, I decided to work as
a teacher. Around the same time, my brother
was doing a mountaineering course at Nehru
Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi. As
I wasn’t doing anything, Colonel Premchand,
who used to be a vice-president at the
Institute, suggested I take up the course too.
In 1981, I started the basic mountaineering
course. I performed exceptionally well and dis-
5/25/12 7:43 PM
Norgay, who with Sir Edmund Hillary was the
first man to scale Everest, and Japan’s Junko
Tabei, the first woman to have made it, were
part of the process, and gave my assent.
Not even a near-death experience could
stop me from completing the expedition.
During our climb to the peak, a sudden
landslide at Lhotse glacier left me and my
team members horribly injured. We were scared
and shaky. We were all taken back to the lower
camp. The authorities took us for medical care
and others were given a choice to stay or go
back. I hid the fact that I had received a blow
on my head; I covered the bruise with ice and
pretended I wasn’t hurt at all. I couldn’t let
something as petty as an avalanche ruin my
dream trip. I could hear my parents saying,
“Now that something wrong has already happened, it’s time for something good to come
your way.” It gave me the courage to complete
the trip. It taught me that taking one positive
step forward makes everything possible.
“IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR MENTAL OUTLOOK. FACTORS SUCH AS
AGE, GENDER OR RESPONSIBILITY CANNOT DETER YOU FROM
DOING SOMETHING YOU WANT TO. IF YOU THINK YOU CAN
DO SOMETHING, GO AHEAD AND DO IT. IF A NORMAL PERSON
LIKE ME CAN DO THE THINGS I DID, ANYBODY CAN”
covered my love for the mountains, which grew
with each passing day. I went on to complete
my advanced mountaineering course.
A piece of paper changed my life forever. In
1983, I got a random letter from the Indian
Mountaineering Foundation saying I was
selected as part of a team to climb Everest.
I simply stared at the letter with wide eyes.
I didn’t know what to say and didn’t even reply. A few months later, I received a reminder
asking me to respond if I was interested.
I took the letter to my institute and asked
them if it was a joke. Finally they checked
the credentials and realised the letter was
genuine. I also discovered that some very big
people, including the legendary Sherpa Tenzing
I now get paid to follow my hobbies. I head
the Tata Steel Adventure Foundation and they
pay me to continue my expeditions. I am
responsible for arranging and training leadership camps across the mountainous terrains of
India. It’s nice to see more and more people
looking at mountaineering as a form of sport
rather than just a hobby. There needs to be a
certain amount of awareness, which is slowly
catching up in India.
My profession has also given me the chance
to live a full life. Earlier, I was just about
mountaineering; my conversation revolved
around it. Now I take out time to do other
things. I stay in a beautiful house that Tata
Foundation has so graciously given me and
spend most of my time gardening. That is
another thing that soothes my restless mind.
Obviously, with the profession I am in, it’s an
occupational hazard to be fit all the time.
I exercise regularly. Jogging and yoga form the
most important regime in my fitness schedule.
I can still climb Everest as many times as
I want. It’s all about your mental outlook.
Factors such as age, gender or responsibility
cannot deter you from doing something you
want to. If you think you can do something,
go ahead and do it. If a normal person like me
can set out and do the things I did, I believe
anybody can. Just believe in yourself.
5/25/12 7:43 PM
5/25/12 7:43 PM
Shailendra Pandey / Tehelka
97-07 DIDI Dharamshala.indd 26
5/25/12 7:44 PM
8
✒
Jit Ray
CASTLES IN MUD For 81 year-old Didi
Contractor, living ‘green’ is good karma. And
she has been giving her spiritual beliefs
earthly shape by building homes out of mud
in a village near Dharamshala
At the foot of the snow-capped Dhauladhar
Range in the beautiful Kangra Valley in
Himachal Pradesh, there’s no need for
air-conditioning, even in summer. Yet, to
the dismay of a charming old lady who lives
in these parts, air-conditioning and concrete
have become the norm. “Modern India is
determined to forget all that is Indian. Often,
I end up reminding the locals about traditional
ways of building homes that were warmer,
safer and environment-friendly,” pronounces
Didi Contractor.
Visit the 81 year-old’s home in Sidhbari on the
outskirts of Dharamshala and you understand
exactly why she’s so upset. Her home, a warm
and welcoming double-storey cottage dipped
in shades of beige, is built of mud bricks and
stone. Her ‘adobe’ has a rural Indian feel and
includes cosy corners and an intelligent use of
space. It’s like any other contemporary house;
only the building materials are different. And
as it was built by bare hands, she believes
it has “a certain emotional content” that
concrete houses lack.
Born of a German father and American mother,
Contractor is a home-grown celebrity of
sorts. She’s built many mud houses and other
structures in and around Sidhbari, a small and
serene settlement that is home to many older
single women, many of them of foreign origin.
She has also built a hospital and a couple of
schools, all of them in the local Kangra style.
This silver self-styled architect is outspoken
but with an endearing smile and gentle
demeanour that makes you want to listen. She
doesn’t wear her heart on her sleeve, nor is she
interested in labels and laurels. Instead, the
environment-friendly homes she designs spring
from her spiritual beliefs. “I distinctly believe
in the Indian idea of reincarnation. And we
have created a very nasty world for those who
are to come after us. Gandhiji had said he
made his decision keeping in mind the weakest
members of society, and to me, the weakest
members are those who are yet unborn.”
In times when ‘green activists’ are given to
trumpeting their causes, Contractor is refreshingly unique, and you are instantly bowled
over by the philosophy of her architecture. In
the 1980s, she even designed a solar cooker, a
hit with the local villagers, which earned her
royalty from a German company that began
producing it. “But what really pained me was
to see concrete buildings coming up in the
hill towns and villages. Not only were they in
complete contradiction to the environment but
they were a hazard to live in.”
As she speaks to us, Contractor lowers herself
carefully into a chair in her cool and tastefully
designed living room. She is recovering from
a hip replacement following a fracture. With
a wry smile, she explains. “I was in haste to
grab a towel and slipped. It cost me ` 3 lakh
to get my towel!” Her ready wit is infectious
and positive attitude absolutely disarming.
“If I had broken my hip 30 years ago, it would
have been a death sentence. I would have
survived, in excruciating pain, for six months
or so in a wheelchair. But now you get spare
parts. So I am lucky to be alive,” she laughs.
Switching right back to her work, she continues, “I learnt the art of building with
sun-baked mud bricks as an adolescent when
I helped my parents build a house using mud
5/25/12 7:44 PM
back home in the US. Besides, I have nurtured
a deep interest in India since my childhood.
My parents were interested in meditation and
art. So I am a second-generation intellectual.”
Life, for Contractor, has been full of twists
and turns and her sense of humour has seen
her through every one of them. “My father
went to the US on a teaching fellowship and
he married my mother there,” she shares. “I
was born there but we spent a few years in
Europe before returning to the US because
of the Second World War. My father was
violently anti-Nazi. Most intellectuals were. He
hailed from a very wealthy family but as the
law didn’t permit him to take money out of
Germany, he suddenly found himself penniless.
It’s hard on life but it’s good for the soul.”
Contractor grew up in Texas and she quips,
with a twinkle in her eye, “I can talk in that
Texas drawl, if you want me to.” Later, when
completing her degree in art at the University
of Colorado, Didi met her husband, a Gujarati
who was in the US to study engineering. He
was handsome with a philosophical bent of
mind that appealed to the young Didi. The
couple got married and moved to India in the
early 1950s and she initially lived with her
husband and in-laws in Gujarat. “I didn’t know
it was part of the bargain that I was now supposed to be a Gujarati lady,” she says wryly.
“According to the middle-class Gujarati code, I
was not allowed to work. If I had known these
preconditions, I probably wouldn’t have made
the journey to India. But I fell in love with
India. It was such a beautiful country then.”
Then, with an air of wistfulness, she adds, “It
was such a different India. The ethics that
had applied for millennia still applied. There
was no consumerism. There was nothing to
consume. But there was such grace. The things
that people wore were so beautiful. Fab India
wasn’t for the rich. It was for the masses.
And the ethic of not taking more than you
needed was ingrained in the Indian mind.” The
orthodox Gujarati code didn’t stop the young
Didi from following her instincts and she made
her foray into designing homes, first with a
focus on interior design. Her first project was
in Juhu in Mumbai, from where she moved on
5/25/12 7:44 PM
IN 1992, SHE DESIGNED HER OWN ADOBE AND BUILT IT WITH THE HELP OF THE LOCALS. SHE ALSO ATE
THE VEGETABLES SHE GREW AND USED LOCAL BUSES TO COMMUTE. “MY CHILDREN WERE SETTLED
AND THEY WERE EXTREMELY GENEROUS. KIRIN HAD SOLD HER FIRST NOVEL AND SENT ME THE MONEY
TO BUILD MY HOUSE. SO MY FRIEND DR BARBARA AND I GOT OUR FIRST MUD HOUSE EACH, BUILT
ALMOST TOGETHER IN THE SAME NEIGHBOURHOOD”
to other projects. “My work caught the eye
of the famous actor, Prithviraj Kapoor, who
asked me to design the interiors of his Prithvi
Theatre. But the fact that I was becoming a
name in the field didn’t go down well with my
husband and in-laws,” she shrugs.
The constant struggle with her in-laws was
only the catalyst as there were other personal
issues in her marriage. Eventually, Contractor
separated from her husband and, along with
her three children, headed for Sidhbari. The
village is located in the larger Andretta area,
which is every retiree’s dream destination. A
rustic, shady locale, it was then an artistic
and intellectual hub and brought Contractor
the peace and solace she so badly needed.
She had just entered a new chapter in her life
and began to experiment with a lifestyle of
renunciation. Yes, it was time to give her ‘mud
castles’ shape. “I have a message for older
people,” says Contractor. “I started my career
at 60; I am now in my 80s and doing exactly
what I wanted to do in my 20s!”
In 1992, she designed her own adobe and built
it with the help of the locals. She also ate the
vegetables she grew and used local buses to
commute. “My children were settled and they
were extremely generous. Kirin had sold her
first novel and sent me the money to build
my house. So my friend Dr Barbara [who ran a
small hospital called Nishta and an NGO] and
I got our first mud house each, built almost
together in the same neighbourhood.”
It was a dream come true, one that was to
grow into a career, much to the delight of her
friends and others who now live in these darling dwellings. “I had been wanting to design
and live in one ever since I came to India
after marriage. I fell in love with traditional
Indian village architecture and I couldn’t wait
to build,” she muses. So, once she built her
own home and another for Dr Barbara, people
began to sit up and take notice. Soon, word
spread and, since then, Contractor hasn’t
stopped building.
5/25/12 7:44 PM
package with upward mobility.” Contractor’s
mud homes have skylights to maximise the use
of natural light and heat, and they are roomy
and include rainwater harvesting and solar
power systems. They also have an ingenious
system to circulate air built into the design
while some homes also have a fireplace.
Shailendra Pandey / Tehelka
The basic idea is to use materials that are
locally available. Contractor also incorporates
design elements from local architecture, to
which she gives a contemporary look and feel.
All homes are custom-made. For instance,
as Dharamshala is situated in an earthquake
zone, she uses vertical steel reinforcing rods
connected to a reinforced concrete beam at
lintel level.
CONTRACTOR’S MUD HOMES HAVE SKYLIGHTS TO MAXIMISE
THE USE OF NATURAL LIGHT AND HEAT, AND THEY ARE
ROOMY AND INCLUDE RAINWATER HARVESTING AND SOLAR
POWER SYSTEMS. THEY ALSO HAVE AN INGENIOUS SYSTEM
TO CIRCULATE AIR BUILT INTO THE DESIGN WHILE SOME
HOMES ALSO HAVE A FIREPLACE
“My family and I have lived in this house built
by Contractor for the past three years but
there has been no need for any repair work.
Also, the biggest relief is there is an 8°difference in temperature inside and outside.
It’s cool in summer and warm in winter,” says
Sarit, who settled in Sidhbari after living in
the US for 20 years. According to Contractor’s
daughter Maya who lives close to her mother,
“People have a strange idea that mud houses
are for the poor and are a dated way of living.
Only when they visit my house and see that
I live a life with modern amenities do they
realise otherwise. Concrete and other modern
environment-unfriendly buildings come as a
Contractor is currently working on building a
private institute in Kandwari, called Sambhavana: An Institute of Policy and Politics, and
another private institute, Dharmalaya, in Bir.
There’s also a guest house in Gagal on her
drawing board. “To help me with my projects,
I have a foreman and an intern who is like an
assistant,” reveals Contractor.
And just to set the record straight, she adds,
“I don’t encourage people to use mud architecture to be easier on the pocket. Even though
my mud homes cost one-third the cost of a
modern home of the same size, they create a
livelihood for the locals. Also, with the costsaving, I encourage home owners to spend the
difference on energy-saving systems like solar
power and other amenities like plumbing.”
Contractor has a knack for explaining economics with a convincing simplicity. “When you
use cement to build, the money goes up and
above, into corporate pockets, while mudbrick architecture helps the money percolate
downwards as it supports someone who can’t
find work elsewhere.”
As wistful as she is about the way things
used to be, Contractor is the first to admit we
cannot turn back the clock. But she does have
a message for those who have made materialism a religion. “I am not against money but
valuing things by money is a terrible mistake.
The most valuable things are those we cannot
buy, like love and sunsets. We have betrayed
our relationship with nature. We should be
ashamed that we are not leaving behind a
better world.”
5/25/12 7:44 PM
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5/28/12 11:03 AM
97-07 Dr Anil Rajvanshi.indd 32
5/25/12 7:45 PM
8
✒ Radhika Raje
Haresh Patel
THE DRIVING FORCE A repatriate
engineer, Anil Rajvanshi has become a
messiah in rural Maharashtra through his
eco-friendly innovations
“My father called me an idiot because
I refused the Green Card to the US!” Anil
Rajvanshi’s conversations are punctuated with
anecdotes that combine wit and wisdom. Even
as he conjures up a joke, he amuses, inspires
and motivates all at the same time. He claims
he has attained this state of mental peace—
“man ki shanti”, as he calls it—after several
turbulent life experiences. The repatriate
has been working tirelessly towards giving
Maharashtra’s rural residents a better life than
their privileged urban-half by spearheading
sustainable development projects and innovations in and around Phaltan in Satara district.
Born and raised in Lucknow, Rajvanshi went to
S T Francis School and later completed his
B Tech and M Tech degrees from IIT-Kanpur.
His quest for knowledge took him to the US
where, at the University of Florida, he pursued
his doctorate in mechanical engineering,
specialising in solar energy. It was during these
days that he met Nandini Nimbkar, who he later
married. “I went to the same university exactly
six months after him and within a few months
we were friends,” she recalls. “It was surprising
to see how much we had in common.”
Developing an interest in imparting knowledge, he stayed back at the University of
Florida to teach for two-and-a-half years
before an inner voice goaded him to return to
India. “I gave it all up to come back and work
for rural development. My arrogance and belief
that I could change my country brought me
back,” says the 62 year-old, as he goes down
memory lane.
However, it was not an easy homecoming.
To begin with, he had to face the negative
response of his family, as he had “chosen to
decline fast-track citizenship in the US”. “Why
should I be a citizen of another country when
the country I was born in is good enough?”
asks Rajvanshi, filled with pride, for the sake
of which he and Nandini even refused to have
children in the US. Today, blessed with two
daughters Noorie and Madhura, Rajvanshi says,
“I wanted my kids to be Indians.” In 1981,
he bid adieu to the US and landed here to
join hands with Nimbkar Agricultural Research
Institute (NARI), which was founded by his
in-laws in Phaltan in 1968. “I supported
him…I had the same plans as well. We both
understood each other. This being my hometown, it was much easier for me to adjust but
he took a while,” says Nandini.
The whole family is dedicated to the cause.
While Rajvanshi heads the institute, Nandini
is the president and his sister-in-law oversees
the animal husbandry department. “We are a
bunch of mad people,” jokes Rajvanshi. NARI
has been a major stepping stone for Rajvanshi
as it gave him an outlet for his dreams. This
non-profit research and development institute
was established by B V Nimbkar, his fatherin-law, who was the first president of NARI
till Nandini took over. Since its establishment, NARI has been involved in agricultural
research, sustainable development, renewable
energy and animal husbandry. With a recent
Globe Sustainability Research Award from
Sweden to its credit, the institute is touching
new heights. Vijendra Singh, who has been
working with NARI since 1991 and is a witness
to Rajvanshi’s journey, says, “He is a great
person; his main aim is to support the poor.
He genuinely loves the people here and is always supportive of new ideas and gets into the
minutest details of each and every project.”
To prove the adage ‘change begins at home’,
Rajvanshi conceptualised and designed an
5/25/12 7:45 PM
RAJVANSHI RECENTLY INVENTED LANSTOVE, A LANTERN-CUM-STOVE THAT COOKS WHILE SERVING AS
A LANTERN. ACCORDING TO HIM, THIS IS, BY FAR, HIS BEST INVENTION. “WHY SHOULDN’T THESE PEOPLE
GET THE LUXURIES LIKE PEOPLE FROM THE CITIES? WE ALL SHOULD HAVE EQUAL LIVES.” THESE
ETHANOL LANTERNS HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED TO LOCALS AT A PRICE OF RS 20 ON A TRIAL BASIS
environment-friendly house for himself in
1984. The 16-inch walls keep the house cool
during summers and warm during winters.
The house is additionally cooled by laying
gunny sacks on the roof and spraying them
with water, a simple application of science
and thermal energy. “We don’t need air-conditioning in our house,” he boasts. The house is
surrounded by acres of greenery and has been
widely used for his research work.
Calling for more and more people to work
towards green ideas, Rajvanshi believes that
today’s youth have a very important role to
play. He is dismayed at what they term as
success. “A car, a big house and a huge salary
are not successes according to me. Youngsters
should stop thinking on these lines. This
shallow thinking will only make them fret over
clothes and bags. I had just two shirts and
two pants but I thought I was the king of the
world.” Another thought that bothers him is
the lack of good role models for developing
minds. To guide tomorrow’s leaders, Rajvanshi
meets them regularly. “Speaking to youth is
my passion; shaping their lives means shaping
the future of the country.”
Uplift at the grassroots is another cause close
to his heart. Just like his father who quit his
professorial job at Allahabad University to
fight against the British during the struggle
for freedom, the desire to bring about a
change has remained in Rajvanshi’s genes. He
recently invented Lanstove, a lantern-cumstove that cooks while serving as a lantern.
According to him, this is, by far, his best
invention. “Why shouldn’t these people get
the luxuries like people from the cities? We all
should have equal lives.” These ethanol-based
lanterns have been distributed to locals at a
price of Rs 20 on a trial basis. Hoping for a
positive response, Rajvanshi says, “Lanstove
promises light in homes that have been in the
dark for 50-60 years.” The innovation received
a Globe Forum Award in Sweden recently.
Another feather in his cap is the biomass
gasifier that utilises agricultural waste from
sugarcane factories in and around Phaltan.
Earlier, this waste was burnt, causing air pollution and production of greenhouse gases. With
this patented innovation, the entire natural
residue gets turned into heat and is being
used for rural business. Another of Rajvanshi’s
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inventions is an electric rickshaw—ELECSHA—which has gained a lot of popularity
among locals as an eco-friendly substitute to
pedal-pushed rickshaws. To help pedal easily
on roads and slopes, ELECSHA runs for about
two hours or up to 60 km with a single
battery charge.
As we are left wondering if he is a geek,
Rajvanshi slowly unfolds his spiritual side. He
has written extensively on topics like mental
happiness, technology and spirituality as well
as personal evolution on his blog speakingtree.
com. “We must do what makes us happy but
be considerate to others as well,” he says. His
last book, Nature of Human Thought (2010),
presents a unique perspective on human
thought and its production through modern
science. So who is he really—a scientist or a
saint? He laughs this off and proclaims, “I am
just a zoo animal!”
While Rajvanshi’s innovations and ideals are
improving people’s lifestyles in the surround-
ing rural areas, he still reminisces about
the days when there was no school nearby
for his daughters. “My wife started the first
school in Phaltan. With my daughters, grew
the grades in school.” So it didn’t come as a
surprise when their younger daughter Madhura
showed an interest in giving up her botany
education to become a teacher in the same
school. Indeed, Phaltan has this family to
thank for many of its firsts. “When I moved
here in 1981, I had to walk for miles to go to
another city to make an international call,”
recalls Rajvanshi. He kept writing letters to
the government asking for a telephone booth
in the area and didn’t rest till one was set up
in his village.
With so much to his credit, it doesn’t come as
a surprise that he is an ardent fan of Einstein
and many other great inventors. “It’s a boon
to be able to change people’s lives,” he says,
sounding like Shah Rukh Khan in Swades and
Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots and reinforcing the fact
that our films are, in fact, based on reality.
5/25/12 7:45 PM
5/25/12 7:45 PM
✒ Anju Mohan
Subhamoy Bhattacharjee
BANK OF IDEAS He is most widely known
for his Dipbahan Rickshaw Bank but Dr Pradip
Kumar Sarmah’s tireless quest for unique
solutions to everyday challenges has raised
the lives of entire communities in Assam and
other parts of India
It is unusual for a social entrepreneur to
make a difference in so many walks of life.
And yet Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah makes it all
seem so easy. That’s probably because for him,
problems don’t exist; only solutions. It is this
very philosophy that powers Dr Sarmah’s dream
to create alternative sustainable livelihoods
for socially challenged communities across
India. And if he is most widely recognised for
setting up the hugely successful Dipbahan
Rickshaw Bank for Assam’s rickshaw-pullers,
his body of work is so varied it’s difficult to
know where to begin. After earning a degree
in veterinary medicine, Dr Sarmah went on
to revolutionise animal husbandry in the
Northeast and has initiated projects ranging
from fish and cattle breeding to handicrafts,
in addition to promoting the application of
simple science to everyday life.
help people instead,” says his wife Anita, a
former teacher. “It’s a decision our son and
daughter and I support wholeheartedly even if
it means we don’t eat out, take vacations or go
to the movies. We take great pride in the good
work he’s doing and I believe he was chosen to
do this.”
Dr Sarmah’s journey into social activism began
when he was still a student in Assam in the
late 1970s, when Northeast India was a hotbed
of student activism and political violence. He
was only 17 then but his social conscience
was already aroused, and he actively engaged
in protests, dharna and demonstrations that
marked daily life in the region.
Seated in his modest home in NOIDA,
Dr Sarmah says that although his work takes
him to desperate communities who live deep
in the hinterland, he made the National Capital
Region his base to coordinate his myriad
projects. “Being in Delhi helps me work better
with international organisations and government agencies,” says the Ashoka Lemelson
Fellow (for social innovators) with a charming
simplicity.
Next, he joined the Guwahati-based Student
Science Society (SSS), which was founded
by his classmates Prof Dinesh Baishya and
Mowsam Hazarika. SSS is a voluntary organisation that aims to keep students engaged in
academics while teaching them practical and
technical skills. “At a time when newspapers
were warning people not to watch the solar
eclipse, we set up a telescope on top of a
college hostel. The next day, we supplied the
photos to the newspapers to raise awareness
about the eclipse,” reminisces Dr Sarmah with
a smile.
But the journey hasn’t been without personal
sacrifices. Ironically, Dr Sarmah’s desire to
generate employment for socially challenged
communities meant his family had to make
some tough choices. “Pradip could have retired
with government perks but he was driven to
Describing him as a man “who can see the
future”, friend and former colleague Pankaj
Neog says, “I have known Pradip-da since we
were both students and part of the SSS. He
was always good at foreseeing the future and
planned activities accordingly. Under the SSS,
97-07 Dr Pradip Kumar Sarmah 2.indd 38
5/25/12 8:53 PM
8
THE JOURNEY SO FAR
Anju Mohan
l 1970s: Student activist
l Joined Student Science Society in
Guwahati
l 1989: Graduated as a veterinary
doctor
l 1991: Joined Rashtriya Grameen
Vikas Nidhi
l 1994: Set up the Centre for Rural
Development
l 2001: Named Ashoka Lemelson
Fellow
l 2004: Launched Dipbahan Rickshaw
Bank in Assam
l Replicated Dipbahan Project in
Tamil Nadu for rehabilitation of
Tsunami survivors
l Replicated Dipbahan Project in
three cities in Uttar Pradesh
l Working with CSIR for development
of new rickshaws in Delhi
l Nodal agency for two World Bankfunded projects in Assam
l Home Manager Project for wives of
rickshaw pullers
5/25/12 8:53 PM
meant fighting ‘the system’. Thus, along
with his SSS colleagues, he spearheaded an
agitation against the government-owned Coal
India Ltd (CIL), whose open-cast mining in
the Patkai hills was destroying the flora, fauna
and cultivable land. It was the 1980s and the
young activist was seized by the fire in his
belly to save villagers who faced disease and
starvation. SSS eventually got the issue tabled
in Parliament and a standing committee was
appointed to visit the area. Finally, CIL had to
halt its mining activities in the area.
Our student activist-cum-social worker was
never wanting for causes; it seems they always
found him. When not bringing about change,
he, as a member of the National Social Service
Scheme, also participated in various rescue
missions including earthquake and flood
evacuations, always keeping his focus on the
human element.
DR SARMAH HAS A NATURAL EASE AND CONNECT
WITH PEOPLE AND HIS DEEP SENSE OF COMPASSION IS
MATCHED BY AN UNUSUAL DETERMINATION TO REACH
OUT TO THOSE WHO NEED HIM. THIS INEVITABLY MEANS
FIGHTING ‘THE SYSTEM’. THUS, HE SPEARHEADED AN
AGITATION AGAINST COAL INDIA LTD
he started free computer education classes as
he believed computers would play an important role in the future.”
Dr Sarmah was yet to earn the labels that
now so aptly describe him—social innovator,
problem solver, inspirational thinker and even
‘saviour’—but he left a mark on everyone
even in his early years. “Pradip always put
the needs of others before his own,” says
Prof Baishya. “Once, his father wanted to buy
him a colour TV but he asked his father to use
the money to buy a cow instead as that would
serve the family better.”
Dr Sarmah has a natural ease and connect with
people and his deep sense of compassion is
matched by an unusual determination to reach
out to those who needed him. This inevitably
In 1989, Dr Sarmah graduated from the
College of Veterinary Science in Guwahati and
accepted a government posting as veterinary
assistant surgeon. Pitting his natural urge
to help people against government apathy,
the young vet and his team regularly visited
remote areas to tend to the health of the
cattle of poor and ignorant farmers. But his
stint with the government was short-lived. At
a time when government jobs were coveted,
he threw in the towel because he couldn’t
stomach the corruption.
“I cried a lot then,” remembers Anita. “I felt
a sense of insecurity and fear about what the
future might have in store. But I realised that
if he wanted to do good for society, I must
support him,” she says, adding that even the
move to NOIDA from Guwahati was a big step
as she had to leave all that was familiar. Her
husband shrugs, “I realised that if I didn’t
opt out, I would either be kicked out or face
persecution. So I resigned in 1991.”
Dr Sarmah’s resignation was a turning point
for the vet, who teamed up with the Rashtriya
Grameen Vikas Nidhi (RGVN), a joint project
of the IDBI and IFCI in 1991. As coordinator
for the project’s animal husbandry sector, he
toured the entire Northeast. Always looking
for innovative solutions to problems, he
helped the villagers organise themselves into
groups to facilitate the prospects of earning a
sustainable livelihood.
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5/25/12 8:53 PM
Even as Dr Sarmah ventured deeper into the
challenges of India’s blighted, he began to
dream of setting up his own organisation to
give full expression to his vision. And the
three years he spent with RGVN provided him
just the experience he needed, specially the
credit and saving programmes he launched for
the agency in several remote north-eastern
areas. He honed his ideas along the way and
discussed them with like-minded people.
Finally, he was ready to take the plunge; in
1994, Dr Sarmah set up the Centre for Rural
Development (CRD). Along with his brother,
who had just graduated as a vet, CRD established ‘Pet & Vet’ clinics for small farmers
who had no access to doctors or vaccination
services for their cattle. But his mission went
way beyond tending to sick animals. With the
help of RGVN and other NGOs, he initiated
artificial insemination and breed-enhancement
projects for farmers so they could earn a
consistent living.
Constantly innovating and experimenting,
Dr Sarmah expanded the concept in 1996,
when he began to use a team of veterinarians
to restructure the economics of small-scale
animal husbandry in the Northeast. He set
up Vet-Aid Centres staffed with local farmers
who were trained as ‘para-vets’. With these
para-vets, Dr Sarmah introduced commercial
breeding of livestock to several backward
places in the Northeast.
A planned pricing scheme, knowledge of the
market, expertise as a vet and awareness of
local culture helped Dr Sarmah overcome the
very challenges that had tripped up previous
development programmes. His efforts received
international recognition and, in 2001,
Dr Sarmah was named an Ashoka Lemelson
Fellow for “opening a new field in rural
development in northeast India”.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Dr Sarmah felt
there was a lot more to be done but it was
a good three years before he could launch
his biggest project to date: the Dipbahan Rickshaw Bank. So as he continued to
improve the economics of remote regions, he
also used his out-of-the-box problem-solving
approach to reach out to other NGOs. “He is
an incubator, a real entrepreneur and a great
trouble-shooter and he does not get disheartened easily,” says Rakhi Mehra, founder of
Micro Home Solutions. “Every problem is an
opportunity to think differently. Armed with
a creative mind, he finds unique solutions
by exploring new aspects of the problem.”
To illustrate her point, Mehra mentions an
instance when her NGO had received a massive electricity generator as a donation for
the community she was working with. “Pradip
managed to raise funds to get the generator
repaired and transported to a remote village
in Assam, which helped the people there
receive electricity.”
Indeed, Dr Sarmah’s creative mind never rests;
one day, while navigating the streets of Guwahati, he happened to hail a cycle rickshaw.
To pass the time, he struck up a conversation
with the rickshaw-puller and was shocked to
learn that he had been paying one-third of
his daily earnings as rent to the owner for
16 years. The conversation kept playing on
his mind and when he did the math, he was
shocked. The rickshaw-puller could have easily
owned the rickshaw in just 12 months with the
money he had been paying as daily rent!
That’s all Dr Sarmah needed to get cracking on
his Dipbahan Rickshaw Bank project. Under
the scheme, each rickshaw-puller would have
to pay Rs 40 daily towards the cost of a cycle
rickshaw and additional benefits. The entire
package was Rs 14,000. At the end of the year,
the rickshaw-puller would own the vehicle,
something he could never have imagined in
his wildest dreams.
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TODAY, THERE ARE 5,000 DIPBAHAN RICKSHAWS PLYING IN VARIOUS CITIES IN ASSAM. BUT IT WAS
ANOTHER RED-LETTER DAY FOR CENTRE FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT WHEN, IN 2008, THE DIPBAHAN
ROLLED ONTO THE STREETS OF LUCKNOW, BANARAS AND ALLAHABAD IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE
AMERICAN INDIA FOUNDATION, PUNJAB NATIONAL BANK AND LOCAL NGOs. NOW, 12,000-14,000
RICKSHAW-PULLERS IN THESE CITIES ARE PROUD OWNERS OF A DIPBAHAN
When donor agencies refused to fund his
initiative, Dr Sarmah approached corporate
firms, which would receive space to advertise
behind the vehicles while the fee they paid
would build seed capital for the Bank. But
there was another challenge: designing a
cost-effective and lightweight cycle rickshaw
that was also comfortable for passengers. So
Dr Sarmah got in touch with an ex-colleague,
Amarendra Das from RGVN, who was working
in the Design Department of IIT-Guwahati. In
just four months, the students were ready with
a new design.
The next milestone was achieved when three
corporate firms—ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Lever Ltd—agreed to
sponsor 100 rickshaws each. Next, Dr Sarmah
convinced insurance companies to buy thirdparty insurance for the rickshaw-pullers. The
first batch was insured by Oriental Insurance,
although today many more companies have
extended policies to cover the beneficiaries of
the scheme.
Finally came the moment he had been waiting
for. In 2004, the first batch of the new and
improved rickshaw was ready to roll. “It was
a proud moment for me but an even prouder
moment for the rickshaw-pullers of Assam.
Each one was provided with uniforms, slippers,
a licence, an insurance policy and an identity
card. Thus, we built a new ethos for this community and also gave them a sense of dignity,”
says the social innovator. “Hindu families
took the rickshaw to a Ganesha temple while
Muslim rickshaw-pullers observed their namaaz
sitting in their rickshaws. It was a huge moment for me.”
Today, there are 5,000 Dipbahan rickshaws
plying in various cities in Assam. But it
was another red-letter day for CRD when, in
2008, the Dipbahan rolled onto the streets of
Lucknow, Banaras and Allahabad in partnership
with the American India Foundation, Punjab
National Bank and local NGOs. Now, 12,00014,000 rickshaw-pullers in these cities are
proud owners of a Dipbahan.
5/25/12 8:53 PM
This seemingly simple innovation has won
international acclaim and even prompted the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology to start
a course on the Rickshaw Bank entrepreneurship model. But trophies and accolades mean
little to Dr Sarmah, something that is best
summed up by Sandeep Arora, a rickshaw
manufacturer who worked with CRD on the
Lucknow project, “I had many meetings
with Mr Sarmah while we were designing the
rickshaw and what struck me most was his
concern for the comfort and ease the design
could bring to the rickshaw-puller.”
Eager to keep innovating, CRD has developed a
newer model with solar panels, three lights, FM
radio and a mobile charger. And what do you
know? Around 200 such rickshaws have already
been sold since January 2012. “The next big
project is the medi-rickshaw, which will take
a team of paramedics who can conduct tests
using simple devices in small towns. These
rickshaws are being planned together with the
Olin Institute of Engineering, Babson School
of Management in Boston and the Guwahati
Medical College. A test drive will be conducted
in July this year,” reveals Dr Sarmah, who
is excited at the possibility of generating
employment for the youth while making the
life of the common citizen easier through his
creative thinking.
“At a time when Assamese people are so
isolated from mainstream India, Pradip has
consistently been building national awareness
about their problems,” says Mowsam Hazarika,
sub-divisional agriculture officer, SSS founder
and an old friend of Dr Sarmah. “There are so
many NGOs working in the field but most of
them work for their own benefit.”
Another feat was mobilising the Assamese
community overseas to help fund his endeavour. “Dr Sarmah is unique in more ways
than one,” remarks Dallas-based Ankur Bora,
secretary of the Assam Foundation of North
America. “I don’t know anybody in Assam
or, for that matter, in India who has the
courage to quit a good government job and
forsake a comfortable life to take up the
challenge of empowering people to write their
own destiny.”
For his part Dr Sarmah says, “It is an ongoing
process that never stops. My mind is always
looking at new things and till I find a way to
tackle the issue at hand, it will keep working on the problem. For example, now I am
looking at sugarcane juice vendors. I want to
develop a small machine that is easy to use
and hygienic too. I keep talking to people
to create synergy and hope to come up with
something soon.”
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97-07 JOSE MAVELI.indd 48
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8
✒ Nisary Mahesh
Sivaram V
REWRITING DESTINIES For the past
13 years, Jose Maveli has been rescuing
street children in Kerala and returning to
them their childhood
Unpretentiously gleeful shrieks greet us at
Janaseva Sisubhavan in Aluva, near Kochi,
Kerala. As the Harmony-Celebrate Age team
enters the gate, a group of young children
comes rushing down with sweet-broad smiles.
Their caretaker Clara arrives with the youngest
member Nanditha in tow. “They have been
waiting eagerly to have their photos clicked,”
she says. “And the ongoing summer vacation
has only added to their merriment.” In blithe
disregard of the fact that they may never see
their parents, these children follow Clara back
to their classes. Following them and guiding
us to the office room is their 61 year-old
adopted guardian and founder of the Sisubhavan Jose Maveli.
to shut his eyes to the sorrow and anguish of
others. “Once on my way back from college,
I saw a small girl crying out for help. Though
passers-by noticed her, nobody offered help,”
he recalls feeling an ache at the insensitiveness of our society. Maveli went up to the girl
and was shocked to hear that she wanted help
for her mother who was in labour. He informed
the police and helped the woman to a nearby
dispensary. When he visited her the next day,
she revealed helplessness in looking after the
child. “This incident moved my heart and
I felt the need to care for destitute children,”
reveals Maveli, who was a student then and
could only afford to spend time with children
in orphanages.
As we make our way to the office of a neat
two-storied building, we hear chirpy reverberations from the music class and tiny feet
thumping through dance practice. “I want to
ease every child’s pain,” says Maveli, talking
about 115 girls and 125 boys aged between
two and 18 in Sisubhavan, which is spread
across 7 acre and comprises five buildings at
two different locations. “I was brought up
in an orphanage,” recalls Maveli with quiet
composure, “not because I didn’t have parents,
but to keep my studies going. My father was
a farmer… I was the seventh in our family of
10 children; my parents struggled to feed us.”
Maveli completed his education at Preshithalayam, an orphanage run by a Christian
charitable trust. “My early life was spent in
a spiritual environment; maybe that’s why
I feel greater empathy for my adopted family
at Sisubhavan.”
Another deep-seated memory he carries is
that of a woman who, with her child, wanted
to throw herself in water. A crowd had gathered around her, not to help but to pelt stones
at her. With Maveli’s timely intervention and
help from the police, the woman, who was
actually mentally ill, was taken to a psychiatric
clinic, and her daughter Mallika was sent
to an orphanage. However, the authorities
at the orphanage were unwilling to look
after the child. It was 1999 and Maveli
was an established businessman in Aluva
at the time. He was also engaged in social
activities as founder of an organisation called
Aluva Janaseva, which he had established in
1996. Aluva Janaseva offered scholarships
to underprivileged children and a free noon
meal programme for poor students in various schools; it had benefitted over 600 poor
children since inception. “I met Janaseva’s
expenses from my own pocket and as Panchayat president convinced many people to
fund this noble venture,” recalls Maveli, who
in 1999 started Janaseva Sisubhavan with
Mallika. Dedicated to the cause of offering
Growing up at Preshithalayam, though
Maveli was secure about his own existence
and believed perseverance would help him get
ahead in this world, he found himself unable
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shelter and education to destitute children, he
says, “I want to create an India without street
children.” Adds Indira Sabarinath, secretary of
Sisubhavan, “They are our own children, and
it’s our moral responsibility to protect them
and give them shelter.”
Engaged in campaigns to rescue street children
with help from the police and volunteers from
child welfare organisations, Maveli recounts
hardships of many of these victims of poverty,
child labour, street circus, kidnapping, sexual
abuse and a traumatic past. Eight year-old
Velmurugan was found on a railway track with
major burns. Five year-old Shalini was rescued
while begging on the streets. Abused by her
father, three year-old Meenakshi was rescued
by her neighbours and a local NGO. A victim of
child trafficking, Arun, 10, was found abandoned at a bus stand. “Sreedevi, who is now
five, was found as a 15 day-old baby in
a roadside bin in a critical state. It took 45
days for doctors to make sure she lived,”
reveals Maveli.
At Sisubhavan there are also many children
whose parents are unable to take care of them
owing to tragic circumstances. Maveli recalls
how he rescued Susheela, Sujatha and Krishnan, who were begging at a bus stand. Later, a
man, who claimed to be their father, took them
back by producing the required documents
but they were found begging again. “This is
how the mafia functions. Many children from
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are
reaching Kerala as beggars and child labour,”
says Maveli. According to Jobin, a caretaker
in Sisubhavan’s boys’ home, “There are many
children who have been abused by the beggar
mafia. They assign young children certain areas
and target amounts, torturing them if they fail
to bring money.”
“BECAUSE OF THE ORDEALS THE CHILDREN HAVE FACED IN THE PAST, MANY OF THEM FIND THEIR
PRESENT ACTIVITIES LIKE EDUCATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION CHALLENGING. THEY ARE AT LEAST
HAPPY NOW AND UNDERSTAND THEY HAVE A FUTURE OF THEIR OWN....THESE CHILDREN, WHO MIGHT
HAVE LIVED THEIR LIFE AS CHAIN SNATCHERS, BEGGARS, DRUG PUSHERS AND LABOUR, NOW GET
REGULAR SCHOOLING AND PARTICIPATE IN DEVELOPMENTAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES,” SAYS MAVELI
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“Because of these ordeals they have faced
in the past, many children find their present
activities—education and social interaction—
challenging. They are at least happy now and
understand they have a future of their own,”
says Maveli with paternal pride. “These children, who might have lived their life as chain
snatchers, beggars, drug pushers and labour,
now get regular schooling and participate in
developmental and cultural activities,” adds
Maveli, whose organisation has helped rescue
over 1,000 children from the streets. “Close to
250 children are now studying in our school,
while others are at various local and boarding schools,” says Clara, informing us that
Sisubhavan has its own English school that
started in 2003 and a senior boys’ education
project that began in 2006.
“Jose Sir rescued me from the streets,” says
Gireesh, who is pursuing his graduation. “If
I had not reached Sisubhavan, I would have
been a chain snatcher,” confesses Gopi Balan.
Thirteen year-old Aathira has already planned
her future. With a spark in her eyes, she
says, “I want to be a teacher!” Her emotional
reunion after eight years with her siblings
Ashwathy and Aishwarya at Sisubhavan made
the headlines of local newspapers some
time ago.
Indeed, what makes Sisubhavan remarkable is
not just the concept but the care with which
the project has been planned. As the children
grow older, they are housed in separate homes
for boys and girls. The boys’ home, which was
established in 2005, is situated in Angamaly,
15 km from Aluva. Spread across 6 acre, it has
a state-of-the-art sports academy established
in 2008. Many renowned state coaches help
children with various sports like football,
basketball, wrestling, judo and swimming.
The academy has its own football ground,
basketball and volleyball court and a swimming pool. Fifteen year-old Raja Chinnaswamy, a state football player, came here as a
kidnap victim. Gopi Balan is a state baseball
player and Gireesh is a university team player
in football. With its drama, dance and music
clubs, Sisubhavan conducts the Janaseva
Super Mega Show, a cultural activity by their
children. “The funds collected from the show
go towards further welfare of these children,”
reveals Maveli. “I want to offer world-class
facilities to my children so they can face the
world with confidence.”
It hasn’t always been a smooth ride. In 2006,
Maveli thought of reaching out to the masses
through a documentary on child labour.
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DREAMS HAVE COME ALIVE AT SISUBHAVAN IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE. MAVELI, A FORMER
NATIONAL-LEVEL ATHLETE, LOVES TO SPEND TIME PLAYING WITH THE BOYS AT SISUBHAVAN, WHERE
ALL THE CHILDREN ARE TREATED AS EQUAL AND NEVER AS ORPHANS. AND THERE
ARE MORE DREAMS AHEAD: A HOME FOR MOTHERS WITH THEIR CHILDREN, AND ANOTHER
FOR ABANDONED WOMEN
A renowned Malayalam film director came forward to help him realise his vision. However,
Maveli had to face allegations that he used
the Trust’s funds to produce the film. “Those
were testing times,” says Mary, his wife. “Many
of our life members left and we were struggling to provide food to our children,” recalls
Maveli, recounting how donations stopped
pouring in and he had to spend from his own
pocket. “Later, people realised how wrong they
were and came back. Since then, Sisubhavan
has gone from strength to strength,” says
Indira, a loyalist of many years.
Today, contributions are enough to sustain
Maveli’s efforts. However, he can’t forget the
days when there was no one to support his
dream. Even his wife Mary had her reservations; now, he is thankful that she stands by
him in all his endeavours. Their two children
are married and settled abroad. For his part,
Maveli had embarked upon a business venture
of wholesale rice with his brother—they were
known as the ‘Maveli Brothers’. Along the way,
he was also drawn into politics and served as
Panchayat president in Aluva. After a split in
the business, though, he stood on his own and
invested in his long-cherished dream.
That dream has come alive at Sisubhavan,
in more ways than one. Maveli, a former
national-level athlete, loves to spend time
playing with the boys at Sisubhavan, where
all the children are treated as equal and never
as orphans. And there are more dreams ahead.
“Many mothers come to us every day for help
but we cannot accommodate them at present
owing to space constraints,” shares Maveli. “A
home for mother and child and another home
for abandoned women are on the cards.” His
ultimate vision is to have space enough for
the sky, his children being the stars.
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5/25/12 7:47 PM
✒ Nisary Mahesh
Haksar RK
SEEDS OF GROWTH Kallen Pokkudan
discovered conservation in Kannur long before
environmentalists brainstormed on how to
preserve our ecosystem and wetlands
May is the hottest month in Kerala. Even as
the mercury soars uncontrollably and humidity shines in the 12-noon beads of sweat on
parched brows, a cool breeze fans Pazhayangadi River in Kannur. The whispers of green
mangroves and the gentle gush of sparkling
water are the only sounds you hear in this
gentle silence.
Ezhom, the village where Kallen Pokkudan
lives, is on the banks of the Pazhayangadi
where the state’s longest stretch of mangrove
forest lies—he planted it. What began as just
an inspired idea two decades ago is now an
achievement synonymous with the man whose
name on a nondescript board points two-way
to the forest and its conservationist’s small
house. But it’s not until the 82 year-old
peels back the years in his rustic, not-soeasy-to-grasp northern Kerala dialect that
we get a glimpse of the eventful life of this
‘green celebrity’.
97-07 Kallen Pokkudan.indd 54
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8
ET ESCIIS EARIS ET LAUT VERIS DOLOREP UDITIUM EARCIT REPE VELES PREM
QUOST UTE CONSEQUI DOLO EICAEPE LICIMILLUPIS REM DOLOR AUT EXERRUM RE
VOLUPTA NONE ET ODIS ATECTEC TORIAE LANDIGN ATUSCIT, NOSSEQUAS ETURITAT
ALIGENESSI OPTA VOLUPTA TIAEPER UMQUAE LIT ALIQUE PRA EXPLITATECEA
NIS REPREPERI DESTIORIST QUI DELENDI OMNIEND ANDANDAE VOLOREMPORI
NONSENDENDAE REPTATUREM
As the noon breeze blows Pokkudan’s silver
wisps into his eyes shaded by thick glasses,
the octogenarian talks with an unvarnished
matter-of-factness about the revolution he
started in 1989. At a time when most people
were ignorant of the many scientific and environmental uses of mangroves, Pokkudan—until
then a political thinker—saw them as windcheaters that, to a great extent, prevented
schoolchildren from losing their umbrellas to
strong winds blowing from the Ezhimala area.
“I started planting mangrove saplings to shield
school-going children from the wind,” says
Pokkudan humbly. “I also believed they would
prevent the sea from eroding the ground
and, above all, I wanted to see the beautiful
trees growing.”
Pokkudan began by planting 300 mangrove
plants he had painstakingly collected from
across Kerala’s marshy areas. Within a couple of
years, they grew into thick green foliage spanning a kilometre. This was much before terms
like ecosystem or ecotourism were flashed in
newspapers and on hoardings in the state. At
the time, many people criticised Pokkudan and
even threatened him with legal consequences
for ‘misusing’ panchayat land. Some others
called him insane. Every morning he would
be disheartened to see many of his saplings
plucked and thrown into the river but his iron
will kept him going. Deciding not to step back,
he filed a police complaint and with his local
political influence succeeded in starting a
silent green movement.
It did not take long for his opponents to
acknowledge his efforts and soon he came
to be endearingly known as Kandal Pokkudan
(Kandal means mangrove in Malayalam); a
Botany professor from Kannur—Professor
Lakshmanan—was the first to spot Pokkudan
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POKKUDAN’S EFFORTS STARTED BEARING FRUIT WHEN THE THEN STATE GOVERNMENT INITIATED THE
DEVELOPMENT OF MANGROVE FORESTS IN KANNUR DISTRICT AND SOUGHT THE ACTIVIST’S HELP. BY
THEN, POKKUDAN HAD PLANTED OVER 100,000 SAPLINGS AND TURNED HIS LONELY BATTLE INTO A
SOCIAL MOVEMENT. THE DEPARTMENT OF FORESTS SET UP A MANGROVE NURSERY OF AROUND 30,000
SEEDLINGS WITH HIS ASSISTANCE. RESEARCHERS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD WERE NOW MAKING A
BEELINE FOR THIS SLEEPY VILLAGE AND SEVERAL ORGANISATIONS BEGAN CAMPAIGNING TO CONVINCE
PEOPLE ABOUT THE NEED TO PRESERVE MANGROVE FORESTS
carrying a bag of seeds wherever he went. “In
those days, I woke up every morning to only
gather as many seeds I could and plant them,”
beams Pokkudan.
No sooner had he got support from environmentalists that a viral campaign went
around the state for action against those
who destroyed mangrove trees; in 1994, it
reached the Kerala High Court. Pokkudan’s
efforts started bearing fruit—when the then
state government initiated the development of
mangrove forests in Kannur district, it sought
his help. By then, Pokkudan had planted over
100,000 saplings and turned his lonely battle
into a social movement. Researchers from
across the world were now making a beeline for
this sleepy village. With his help, the Department of Forests set up a mangrove nursery of
around 30,000 seedlings. Several organisations
began campaigning to convince people about
the need to preserve mangrove forests, with
Pokkudan travelling wherever he could.
Indeed, activism has come naturally to this
man, who was born in 1930 in the Pulaya
caste, one of the most discriminated in olden
days. Owing to absolute poverty, Pokkudan
could not complete his schooling and dropped
out in Class 2. Nevertheless, imbued with a
progressive outlook, he entered politics at a
very early age. “There were only two personal
experiences I had in mind—casteism and the
difficulties our farmers faced.” Attracted to the
communist ideology, which was very strong
in Kannur, a teenaged Pokkudan became a
member of the Karshaka Thozhilali Sangham
(Agricultural Labourers’ Union of CPM). His
fervour for every political and social activity,
including the Peasant’s Revolt in the Malabar
region, took him to prison many times.
However, his political association was strained
when he raised his voice against caste discrimination within the party. “Putting an end
to my political activities, I was clueless and
spent my days watching the monsoon lashing
the marshy land,” Pokkudan recalls the birth of
his mangrove mutiny. “For people of my community, mangroves are a source of food, fuel
and medicine. We used to cook mangrove seeds
during famines. We were taught that these
were nature’s ways to protect the land from
natural disasters like winds, waves and soil
erosion.” He also speaks with passion about
the special types of fish that would come out
of the salty seawater to lay eggs inside the
thick mangrove bushes.
Today, the 300-odd seedlings Pokkudan planted
have grown into a forest, making it a small
ecosystem in itself with water birds, fish and
turtles, including the rare Asian giant softshelled turtles protected under the Indian
Wildlife (Protection) Act. What’s more, the
forest has all the 22 mangrove varieties that
can grow on a wetland. He proudly speaks
about a newspaper report that quotes Hungarian ornithologist Attila Bankovich, a visitor to
Kannur last year, who spoke of the unmatched
biodiversity in the district’s mangroves and
appealed for their preservation.
Evidently, Pokkudan’s passion—and association—with mangroves runs deep. ‘Pokkan’, says
his wife Meenakshi with a rustic innocence, is
a dialectical term for a ‘pulaya’. “At the time of
his birth, my husband’s umbilical cord looked
like the bloated mangrove seed and that’s
how he was endearingly called ‘Pokkudan’,”
she recalls. His lack of formal education hasn’t
stopped Pokkudan from becoming a master
on the subject. Today, he conducts awareness classes in over 200 schools and colleges
across the state. In fact, the Calicut University
has included in its curriculum Pokkudan’s
autobiography—Kandal Kadukalkkidayil Ente
Jeevitham (My Life in Mangrove Forests),
edited by Malayalam writer Thaha Madayi and
published by Pokkudan’s son Sreejith. “What
makes this autobiography different from others
is that it’s probably the only scientific book on
mangroves, their characteristics, cultivation
and preservation,” says Madayi. “Only a person
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the destruction of wetlands and
local self-government institutions taking up the initiative to
save mangroves, there’s hope,”
says Sreejith. To this, Ajayan
Master, a Kannur-based social
activist, adds, “Pokkudan has
gone beyond the simple treeplantation drive and awakened
the collective social conscience
of an entire state.”
TODAY, THE 300-ODD SEEDLINGS POKKUDAN PLANTED HAVE
GROWN INTO A FOREST, MAKING IT A SMALL ECOSYSTEM IN
ITSELF WITH WATER BIRDS, FISH AND TURTLES, INCLUDING
THE RARE ASIAN GIANT SOFT-SHELLED TURTLES. WHAT’S
MORE, THE FOREST HAS ALL THE 22 MANGROVE VARIETIES
THAT CAN GROW ON A WETLAND
who has touched the soul of nature can take
up such a mission,” says writer N Prabhakaran,
who wrote the foreword for the book. Pokkudan’s mission is also a part of study material
on how mangroves could save us from disasters
like a tsunami. “It’s thrilling to see schoolchildren and experts learning something
from a school dropout,” laughs Pokkudan,
whose efforts have nurtured interest in
farming and environmental conservation
among children.
“There was a time when people started cutting
Pokkudan’s mangroves in the name of development. But with collective resistance against
Amid this green wave, the
only hoarse sound is that of
the opening and closing of the
Mangrove Theme Park. Even
when it echoed up to New
Delhi a couple of years ago,
Pokkudan was in his marshy
fields making little caverns for
mangrove seedlings. “I don’t
know anything about the theme
park or its controversies,” he
says. “Ask me about mangroves.”
However, his elder schoolteacher
son Aanandan explains how
the forest was developed into a
theme park by the government
in 2009, but closed down a year
later when commercial exploitation of the area was banned
under the Coastal Regulation
Zone. In fact, in 2010 Anandan
helped Pokkudan publish his
book Chuttachi, which speaks about the natural
resources, rare species of fish and birds in
the area and their mutual dependence in
an ecosystem.
Not surprisingly, over the years, many accolades have come Pokkudan’s way, including
the P V Thampy Memorial Endowment Award in
2001, Bhoomi Mitra Award in 2003, the Kerala
Forest Department’s Vanamitra Award in 2006,
and Haritha Vyakthi (Green Personality) Award
in 2010. “Real recognition, however, is that
people now care for my mangroves,” says a
proud Pokkudan, who at the same time worries
that there won’t be anyone to carry forward his
legacy after his family. Therefore, he wants the
government to take up green initiatives and
make environmental studies part of the school
curriculum. “Our children will be aware of the
importance of environmental protection only
if the politicians are; that’s the sorry state of
affairs,” he quips.
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✒ Arati Rajan Menon
Anshuman Akash
MADE IN MEWAT Mehmood Khan
has returned to his ancestral home from
London to initiate micro-experiments that
are transforming this forgotten district—and
forming a model for the rest of rural India
In the heat and dust of Beria Bass village,
a speck in Haryana’s Mewat district, the
‘Mewat Hi-Tech Dairy’ is a welcome oasis.
“We have 77 animals here,” our host Mehmood
Khan tells us with a pride that is almost paternal as we drive through the gates of this dairy
and vermicomposting centre on a scorching
afternoon in his black Tata Safari. That pride
spikes visibly when a young lad rushes up to
announce the birth of another calf. “Make
that 78!” he chuckles, as he rushes along the
length of the noisy and slushy cowshed to
meet the new arrival, mindless of his spotless
white kurta-pyjama. It’s a heart-warming sight
for even the most jaded, a glistening black
calf lying passively at his mother’s feet as she
nuzzles and cleans him with a proprietary air.
This pastoral symphony is an integral part of
the momentum this 58 year-old has created
in his native Mewat with a blend of ideas and
networking that aims to make every resident
a change agent. To get the ball rolling, and
keep it in play, this man of ideas made a
life-transforming change himself—giving up
his position as Global Leader of Innovation
Process at the London headquarters of Unilever
three years ago to move back and shepherd his
silent revolution that delivers education, empowerment and sustainable livelihoods. Take,
for instance, the fact that Nai Nangla village,
Khan’s ancestral home, enjoys 95 per cent
literacy today, from 23 per cent in 2003, quite
an achievement in this Muslim-dominated
district that time appears to have forgotten.
“Mewat lies in the shadow of Delhi but is
among the 20 poorest districts in India,”
points out Khan. “It is a textbook example
of how democracy can marginalise regions,
communities and sectors. There is no representative who’s taking emotional responsibility
for this place.” His own re-engagement with
the region began in 2003 after a meeting in
London with Madhav Chavan, promoter-CEO
of Indian NGO Pratham, whose Annual Status
of Education Report pointed out the abysmal
literacy rate of women in Mewat.
So moved was Khan that he established the
Rasuli Kanwar Khan Trust or RKKT (named after
his parents) with his ancestral land in the
three villages of Beria Baas, Nai Nangla and
Mandikhera. “It was a wake-up call,” recalls
Khan, who managed to “escape” from Mewat,
thanks to an encouraging family who educated
him at a local school and sent him for a degree
at Haryana Agricultural University in Hissar.
It was all the encouragement this sparky lad
needed; he managed to secure a place for himself in IIM-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), kick-starting
a successful career that included development
experience at IIM-A, Bharatiya Agro Industries
Foundation and Punjab Cooperatives before he
joined Unilever, where he spent 35 years.
“Despite the so-called pace of development in
our country, things have regressed in Mewat,”
rues Khan. “The school at Nagina where I
studied science no longer offers the subject;
so, ironically, a kid today has less opportunity
than I enjoyed. Mewat has become marginalised with connectivity being a major concern
and the virtual absence of public transport.
Our lush green mountains have been systematically raped to build Delhi and Gurgaon,
rendering the landscape sparse and arid.”
Another major concern, as Khan points out, is
the health of women; 80 per cent of them are
anaemic and enjoy little access to reproductive
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healthcare. “Can you imagine that there is not
a single gynaecologist here?” he asks. “Also,
all the toilets in schools are non-functional, a
major disincentive for girls who want to study.
That’s why 70 per cent of girls tend to leave
school after the fifth grade, because safety,
sanitation and privacy become major issues.”
These concerns are set to rest in Universal
Academy in Nai Nangla village, our first stop
in our day with Khan. This model school for
Nagina block is one of eight he has set up in
collaboration with Educomp, an education
solutions provider with its trademark ‘smartclass’ experience. Since it opened in July 2008,
150 children have already enrolled and Khan
expects the number to gradually increase once
more parents realise the benefits.
These benefits are more than apparent when
we walk into a lower kindergarten classroom,
where a ‘smartclass’ is in progress. Following
the AV on ‘comparison’, which is watched
avidly by a group of 10-12 children, a teacher
reinforces the concept using two sticks of
chalk. Remarkably, the children don’t just
respond eagerly but obediently to her insistence on the use of English. “They are like
sponges, waiting to absorb whatever we give
them,” says Khan. “And if the government fails
to give them what they need, we must do it
ourselves.” The villagers also get incentives,
in terms of discounted fees, for enrolling their
daughters in school. As 21 year-old Jyoti, who
has been teaching here for two years, tells us,
“It’s so important for girls to get an education
and be able to use it. These schools enable
girls in Mewat to study. And because of them,
a local girl like me can actually work and earn
a living, thus inspiring other women.”
Inspiring—and empowering—women is at the
core of Khan’s strategy. “Women can change
society,” he emphasises. “All societies who
have neglected their women have been ruined;
those who have empowered them have prospered.” A natural segue to this statement is
our next stop, AMRIT (an acronym for apparels
manufacturing rapid induction training), an
all-women training centre and garment factory,
set up by RKKT three years ago in consultation
with Harminder Sahni of Wazir Advisors, a con-
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KHAN OUTLINES A FOUR-STEP PROCESS TO TRANSFORMATION THAT, HE INSISTS, IS REPLICABLE:
IMAGINATION, CO-CREATION, COLLABORATION, AND EXPERIMENTATION. “WE NEED TO TELL YOUNG
PEOPLE, OUR MBAs THAT WHEN THEY ARE MY AGE, INDIA WILL BE NO. 1,” HE SAYS. “ONLY IF
THEY IMAGINE IT CAN THEY MAKE IT HAPPEN. POSITIVE THINKING CAN BRING ABOUT REAL-TIME
CHANGE. LOOK AT OUR ADVANTAGES; WE HAVE A LARGE POPULATION, WE ARE A DEMOCRACY
AND WE GET SUN ALL YEAR ROUND”
sulting firm focused on consumer products and
services. Sahni’s firm procures the raw material
for the high-quality garments manufactured at
AMRIT and then markets them once finished.
“We started training the women initially,”
recounts Khan. “But we realised that they had
no avenues of employment. Now, their skills
earn them dividends.”
Today, almost 70 women, ranging from the
ages of 18 to 35, work in AMRIT from Monday
to Saturday; their salary is based on a point
system for the work done and the kind of work
put in, offering them a system with built-in
flexibility—and a sense of camaraderie that is
palpable. The cutting, stitching and finishing
rooms, all togged out with the most sophisticated equipment, are abuzz with activity, and
more than a few giggles as we walk through.
“Initially, it was tough to persuade the men to
send their women here,” reveals 38 year-old
Mukund Upadhyay, who manages the factory.
“Khan sahib and I had to literally go door to
door to convince them. Now, they realise the
benefits. Other than empowering them financially, we teach them life-skills. Earlier, most
of the women used their thumbprint while
collecting their salaries; now they all sign for
their money.” Take, for example, 18 year-old
Arshida. “My life has changed a lot since
I started coming here,” she says, painfully
shy but emphatic enough when she tells you
that she is able to earn between Rs 3,000 and
Rs 4,000 per month now.
“Make no mistake, girls like her will change
society,” Khan says with a smile. “We conduct
hundreds of workshops across Mewat to spread
5/25/12 7:49 PM
awareness on the power of ideas and the need
to create your own solutions.” In fact, he
outlines a four-step process to transformation
that, he insists, is replicable: imagination; cocreation; collaboration; and experimentation.
“We need to tell young people, our MBAs that
when they are my age, India will be No. 1,” he
says. “Only if they imagine it can they make
it happen. Positive thinking can bring about
real-time change. Look at our advantages; we
have a large population, we are a democracy
and we get sun all year round.” Similarly,
co-creation, collaboration and experimentation are all precepts he has implemented in
Mewat through his many projects where he
has brought in technical support through his
extensive professional network, apart from
furnishing his own land and capital.
For instance, a tie-up with global technology
provider Genpact for a computer training
centre for villagers, many of whom were
subsequently hired by companies like Aviva,
Max New York Life and ICICI Bank; HOWEL,
an innovative hole-in-the-wall programme
with IT trainer NIIT to familiarise kids with
computers in a democratic and non-structured
way; literacy and vocational training centres
for girls across the district; an end-to-end
sanitary napkin production factory that now
awaits a female manager to get off the ground;
and even a fascinating connect with Oxford
University professor Josh Silver for prototype
testing in Mewat of his $ 1 ‘adjustable glasses’
that are set to revolutionise eye care among
the underprivileged.
Each project is run by its own change agents,
while Khan remains a phone call away. “I use
my car as an office and go from village to
village,” he says. “I don’t want to interfere
with any project, just mobilise support and
awareness.” There have been disappointments,
of course. A Mother Dairy milk collection
booth he helped bring to Nai Nangla, enabling
villagers to demand competitive prices, has
shut shop. That’s what prompted him to set up
his own dairy. “Khan sahib is never deterred
by setbacks and keeps coming up with new
ideas,” says 35 year-old Mayaram, a native
of Mewat, who has lent him a hand in many
ventures. “I used to teach poor people at my
computer centre so we found common cause.
It’s challenging to overcome traditional mindsets in Mewat and get projects going. Many
people do not truly appreciate all that Khan
sahib is doing. The good news is that he is
slowly starting to arouse people’s conscience.”
“We have hundreds of ideas; some work, others
don't,” concedes Khan. “The trick is to keep
trying.” He believes every idea should be given
between three and five years to gestate before
one evaluates its success. “It’s necessary to
amend and refine as required and find the
right path,” he says. “We must also go beyond
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5/25/12 7:50 PM
Khan echoes this sentiment, saying, “We
need different delivery systems to rein in the
capabilities of rural youth. We aim to scale up
our micro-experiments that have worked successfully in Mewat and replicate them across
the country. We must look at sustainable ways
to grow India as a market and remove poverty.
People need imagination to understand that
rural India is an opportunity, not a liability.”
“IF YOUR LIFE IS LED BY THE NEEDS OF OTHERS, YOUR
LIFESTYLE BECOMES YOUR HEALTH REGIMEN. IF YOU
NOURISH YOUR MIND, YOUR BODY ALSO GETS THE
BENEFITS.” IN KHAN’S VIEW, SILVERS TOO CAN BECOME
CHANGE AGENTS IF THEY SEE THINGS FROM THE
PERSPECTIVE OF THE YOUTH AND APPLY TRADITIONAL
VALUES TO MODERN CONCEPTS
market research and learn on the ground, work
with the youth, understand their values.”
Khan knows this only too well from his years
at Unilever, where he travelled across more
than 70 countries, and, in his capacity as
Global Leader of Innovation Process, managed
the ideas of 18,000 innovation officers across
the globe. He earned his own stripes at the
company among the emerging markets of
Southeast Asia, including a stint in Vietnam
where he spearheaded the shift of focus of a
coffee-drinking nation to tea, by developing
an entire lifestyle around the ‘Lipton’ brand
appealing to the aspirations of the youth.
The same stick-to-itiveness is now bearing
fruit in Mewat—this time going beyond
lifestyles to transforming lives. Khan is now
brainstorming with microfinance guru Vijay
Mahajan and Professor Pradeep Chowdhury, a
mover behind the Indian Institute of Sustainable Enterprise in Bengaluru, to mobilise
rural India. "It requires an audacious vision
to tackle a challenge of such complexity and
magnitude and people like Mehmood Khan
have what it takes," says Chowdhury, who met
Khan in early 2011. "We are working together
to create opportunities in agriculture, health,
alternate energy, water and affordable housing
through improving livelihoods and women's
empowerment. We want likeminded people to
join forces with us. This work will give meaning to our lives, and failure is not an option."
Sharing this vision with Khan is his wife
Sanobar, who he credits with the idea of establishing RKKT. “She is a remarkable woman,”
he says. The couple have homes in Gurgaon,
London and Ulan Bator (where Sanobar owns
an Indian restaurant) but Mewat is now
home—they spend eight to nine months of the
year here. And though their children live overseas (their son Sahil is an investment banker
in London while their married daughter Safina
is a lawyer in Florida), they remain rooted to
Mewat through their parents. “My two year-old
grandson Gabriel has drunk the milk of the
cows of Mewat,” Khan tells us.
Back in the dairy, as Khan looks around him,
his love for this “land of the Mahabharata”—is
palpable. “We are all sustained by the Vedic
values of atma, karma and dharma,” he says.
“If your life is led by the needs of others,
your lifestyle becomes your health regimen.
If you nourish your mind, your body also gets
the benefits.” In Khan’s view, silvers too can
become change agents if they see things from
the perspective of the youth. “You must apply
traditional values to modern concepts. I'm
proud to have married my inheritance with
productive concepts to regenerate my land.”
This regeneration is apparent here. The
cows providing milk and compost (a trolley
a day) to refuel the arid land. His orchard
with 200 trees (designated a Horticultural
Demonstration Farm) on land that belonged
to his grandfather’s grandmother. A dairy
worker’s daughter who runs up to recite the
alphabet she learnt at school that day….
It’s a complete cycle of land, crops, animals
and humans; nurtured to ensure that each
component generates more value than it took
to establish. As we leave, we walk past the
cowshed one last time—while the mother
looks on fondly, the newborn calf is already
on its feet, its steps tentative at first, and
then gradually more confident. A metaphor,
one hopes, for Mewat.
5/25/12 7:50 PM
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97-07 Saraswathy.indd 68
5/25/12 7:51 PM
8
✒ Sanskrity Sinha
Prasad Durga
THE CHANGING TIDE A doctor by
profession, Saraswathy Ganapathy, 69, has
changed the lives of women from villages
in Karnataka, showing them the way to
self-reliance and, most of all, self-belief
Bespectacled, wearing a simple blockprinted sari, Dr Saraswathy Ganapathy looks
delightfully genial. Her voice reaches out and
her eyes make an instant connection. It’s easy
to understand what helped her walk the lanes
of browbeaten villages in Karnataka’s Kanakpura district with her team from The Belaku
Trust and make inroads with deprived natives.
Ganapathy established the Trust to empower
and rebuild the lives of women in the region.
At their modest office in J P Nagar in Bengaluru, Ganapathy sits with papers and files
piled up on her table. “If you want a picture
of me at this table, you will have to blur the
foreground,” she says, smiling instantly. She
claims she is not as good at posing for camera
like her celebrity husband Girish Karnad who,
she says, can smile all day long. But then, she
is innately a cheerful person, with maternal
warmth—indeed, she is a mother not just
to her two children but to the women of
Kanakpura.
By training, Ganapathy is a paediatrician but
she never went into practice. “My parents were
physicians and I automatically drifted towards
the profession; also because in those days one
didn’t need to pull strings to get into medical
colleges. If you were good, you got in; if not,
you were thrown out. Medicine was exciting.”
Despite the “excitement”, something kept
Ganapathy from practice. “I did intensive care
in paediatrics in the US. I had no intention to
stay in the US but ended up living there for
15 long years from 1966-81….” she pauses for
a moment and continues. “We had to spend
a fortune to keep a small premature baby
weighing 2 pounds alive, only to discover later
that he was blind, deaf and suffered from brain
dysfunction.” Such experiences would often
make her ask herself: “Have you really done
anything?” Back in India, she says, it was
crazy to see normal, healthy babies dying just
because the mother didn’t have a clean blade
to cut the cord. “Gradually, I started feeling
that wasn’t the way I wanted to go; finally, my
husband proposed to me and I decided I would
come home,” she says with a mischievous
smile, followed by a quick statement, “That’s
all I am going to say about ‘him’, by the way.”
Ganapathy’s playful side is tangible as she
speaks—minimally, of course—about her husband. “When I phone some ministers, I go as
‘Dr Ganapathy’ and often can’t get them to talk
to me. As soon as I say I am ‘Mrs Karnad’, I’m
welcomed with banni, banni, banni [welcome
in Kannada],” she says laughing. “That’s fine
with me. He is our chief trustee and it helps
us.” And although Ganapathy acknowledges
her husband is a “terrific playwright”, her
identity is evidently her own—a woman in her
own right. “I always felt women are superior,”
adds the 69 year-old.
Shortly after returning from the US, Ganapathy
formed a group and started a small health
research project in the villages of Kanakpura.
“During our research, we came across a house
which was one of the poorest setups I have
ever seen,” she recounts. “The husband had
tuberculosis, the wife’s eyes were pale as she
was severely anaemic and their eight monthold baby was all skin and bones because of
malnourishment. At that point, we were very
new in the area as we had only been doing
research. Helping them monetarily was out
of the question because they would have
5/25/12 7:51 PM
gone broke again in a few days. We asked the
woman what she needed to earn a living and
she instantly told us she wanted a sheep. We
were surprised why she didn’t ask for a chicken
or a goat. She replied, ‘A goat has to be taken
to the forest…I don’t have the energy. Chickens get sick and need more space. I can tie a
sheep outside my home, I can feed it grass and
if I can get a pregnant one, I can sell the lamb
right away’.”
So they bought a sheep for her; and within a
year, she had seven! She also started taking
care of other villagers’ sheep and earning
substantially to lead a decent life. “That made
me believe that these people know what
they need, but they don’t have the means,”
observes Ganapathy. “That’s why I’m annoyed
with our government schemes.” While working
on public health in villages, Ganapathy had
several other revelations about social issues
that had an indirect impact on women’s
health. One such issue was child marriage. “We
spent some three to four years in Kanakpura;
we knew the women and the villagers and they
knew us. We felt there was need for intervention.” But challenges lay ahead. “We realised
that owing to the cultural and social beliefs
of these people, it would be very difficult to
bring in a change overnight,” she explains.
The Belaku Trust Office
With a few other likeminded people,
Ganapathy formed The Belaku Trust in 1995.
The Trust offers opportunities to village
women by engaging them in the making of
recycled paper products, block-printed materials such as scarves, and by training them in
embroidery skills, to enable them to become
self-reliant. The Trust works with various
women’s groups, income-generation groups,
women from the community they have trained
to work with health awareness project teams,
and youngsters.
The scope of the Trust’s activities, over the
years, has provided its participants valuable
life experiences and also translated into much
contemporary lore. Ganapathy recalls an
incident when one of the women in the group
complained about her husband forcing their
16 year-old daughter into marriage. “Though
there are reasons for this—the villagers feel
the girls are vulnerable to sexual crimes and
are safe only if married—we called up the
groom’s family and said it was illegal to marry
a girl who was below 18 years of age. We told
them to call off the wedding or face police
action. It was quite dramatic but eventually
the wedding was called off. What’s remarkable
is that, with the support of Belaku Trust, this
woman had the courage to stand up to the
elders in her family, her own husband and the
village to support her daughter and save her
from a forceful marriage.”
Women and villagers fondly call Ganapathy
“Saras Madam” and look up to her as a pillar of
5/25/12 7:51 PM
support. Baneen Karachiwala, who has worked
with the Trust for six years, says, “Dr Ganapathy is more like a teacher and mentor. You can
go to her with any problem and you won’t find
anyone more encouraging and supportive.” The
Trust also has volunteers belonging to other
nationalities involved in its various projects.
Viktoria Baskin from Australia, who has been
interning at the Trust since September 2011,
says, “It’s inspiring to see Dr Ganapathy
at work. She is very sharp and not afraid
of anyone.”
With minimal financial support from local
government, Belaku Trust is mostly dependent
on individual donations. “We are not here to
make revolutionaries out of these women,”
says Ganapathy. “We intend to create a pool
that can recognise its own problems and look
within itself for solutions and decisions. Our
plan is to ideally make ourselves redundant.
We would like to provide these women access
to resources through which they can make that
change happen.”
The road to empowerment is never an easy
one. Over the past 17 years, Ganapathy has
fought many battles—caste, ritual, cultural,
gender. The Trust came to know of a village
where female foeticide and female infanticide
were the norm. “In one case, we interfered,
took the infant to an orphanage and she was
adopted. She is a beautiful little girl today,”
shares Ganapathy with a sigh of relief. Women
from tribal villages, widows, abandoned
women, landless and unlettered women have
all benefitted from the Trust. In return, the
good doctor has learnt more than she has
taught. To bring a change in society, a change
in attitude is a must, she believes. She has
witnessed this not only in the women but the
men too.
“All men are not bad, all of them don’t victimise women, but their upbringing makes them
the way they are,” she reasons. “After a certain
age, you can’t change that outlook. We have
worked with young men from high schools and
colleges and tried to talk to them about some
of these issues but it’s astonishing how early
those attitudes are set. That’s discouraging.
We have been thinking of involving men at
all levels. A lot of youngsters do respond, but
the response is very slow. I think the success
will come only when they see real changes
around them.”
ONE NOTABLE SUCCESS STORY IS KODAHALLI VILLAGE; AN
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN BY THE TRUST ABOUT ALCOHOLISM
AND RELATED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BOOSTED THE WILL
POWER OF THE WOMEN WHO MANAGED TO MAKE THE
ENTIRE VILLAGE LIQUOR-FREE. “TODAY, WOMEN HAVE
MUCH MORE SELF-CONFIDENCE,” ASSERTS GANAPATHY
Despite the many disappointments encountered on the way, the success stories point to
a bright future. “It’s important even if you get
one woman who is willing to change and do
something differently,” Ganapathy emphasises.
”She may not have the money to do it; the
men and elders in her family may not let her
do it; but when you show them that small window of opportunity, they sort their lives out.”
The Trust also provides scholarship for girls
from poor families and financial aid for families
with serious medical problems. “Sometimes
young girls come, get married and go away, but
through our training programmes they take a
skill with them, particularly embroidery, that
they can use somewhere else.”
One notable success story is Kodahalli village;
an awareness campaign by the Trust about
alcoholism and related domestic violence
boosted the will power of the women who
managed to make the entire village liquorfree. “Today, women have much more selfconfidence,” asserts Ganapathy. “They are now
willing to travel, take decisions to keep their
business going and tell their families what
they want. Education has begun to make an
impact in some areas to some extent. But
I would like to see much more happening.”
5/25/12 7:51 PM
INSIDE
p74: The 'write' project
p79: You've got mail
Etcetera
CULTURE ● LEISURE ● LIFESTYLE ● BOOKS ● MISCELLANY
A special
symphony
Co-founder of Bombay Chambers Orchestra Jini Dinshaw
goes down memory lane with Radhika Raje
I
t’s not always easy to find music in Mumbai’s fre- and Mozart were an alien genre of music for most. The
netic life. However, close to the city’s southern tip, idea was to entertain and educate listeners while spreadfamously depicted in many a Hindi film, one can ing its own wings. Jini Dinshaw, co-founder of BCO, rests
feel the rhythm of a changing day; at dusk, when the against her gigantic piano in her musical nest as she gets
sun is going down and the street lights flicker to life, the nostalgic about the days when it all started. “Initially, we
rumbling waves amid heaving traffic tell us that evfaced several problems. Differences among the
MUSIC
ery sound could be music—if one wishes to believe.
founders, lack of sponsorship and regular migration
Encapsulating a city far too complicated for any
of the performing members to other countries; they
simple logic, Bombay Chambers Orchestra (BCO) was all kept the orchestra under a lot of pressure. This year as
established not just for love of music but as an ode to its we complete our 50th year, it’s amazing how we have surplace of origin. Fifty years later, BCO’s violins and clarinets vived given the ever-changing situation. What’s more, we
are still dedicated to music unique to its address—the Na- have 200 concerts to our credit in Mumbai in these past
tional Centre of Performing Arts, across the road from the five decades.”
famous waves, nature’s orchestra.
Pointing to musical academies built in other cities such as
Until 1962, when BCO was established as an educational Bengaluru, she finds it strange how no help has ever come
trust and amateur orchestra, symphonies by Beethoven their way from the state government. “It is unfortunate
97-11 Etcetera.indd 72
5/25/12 7:53 PM
Etcetera
that the city does not have a school of music. Most major
cities boast of schools of music and yet they have not given
this country an Indian symphony orchestra. In spite of the
grave financial constraints, the BCO Society has pursued
what it set out to do—train and teach young Indian talent
and give this country a truly Indian symphony orchestra,”
says Dinshaw, proud that BCO has offered free coaching
in orchestral playing techniques to the city’s young talent
and encouraged them to take up wind, brass and string
instruments.
She is quick to add, though, that music doesn’t need sympathy, “it needs passion”. While introducing Indians to
opera and symphonies through four to six concerts every
year, BCO has also invited visiting musicians who have
conducted workshops and given individual coaching to
members and beginners, forgoing their professional fees.
“Our guest conductors from the UK, Austria, the US,
Russia, Israel, Japan and Germany have most willingly
given their valuable time to work with the orchestra for
10-15 days prior to each scheduled concert because they
had the greatest admiration for the love and sacrifice of the
BCO’s orchestral members who attend rehearsals at 7 am!”
says Dinshaw.
She remembers how, once, guest musicians trained children from Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre in Pune
to perform on tracks from the film, The Sound of Music;
it was shot by British musicians and later turned into a
documentary shown across the world. “There is no success without difficulty,” says Dinshaw, who still plays viola
in the orchestra at the age of 83. “And BCO’s success talks
about its difficult journey. Yet there is so much to achieve.”
BCO’s first Golden Jubilee Concert was performed in March
2012 and was conducted by Keiki Kobayashi; the next
performance, also conducted by Kobayashi, will be held
at the National Centre of Performing Arts in Mumbai on
25 November 2012
SONGS FROM THE PAST
VOICES FROM THE INNER COURTYARD
IS NOT JUST A BOOK ABOUT A
WOMAN WHO DEDICATED HER LIFE
TO PRESERVING A LEGACY; IT’S
ALSO THE HISTORY OF A LEGACY
THAT NEEDS VOLUNTEERS TO
SAFEGUARD IT FOR POSTERITY.
LEELA SOMANI WAS 20 WHEN SHE,
WITH HER SISTER, DECIDED TO
PRESERVE MARWARI FOLK SONGS
AND THEREFORE STARTED LEARNING
MUSIC FROM RAJASTHANI TRIBAL
FOLK SINGERS CALLED LANGAS.
TODAY AT 78, SHE IS PROUD TO
HAVE DOCUMENTED 500 MARWARI
TRADITIONAL SONGS AND HAS
17 RECORDED ALBUMS TO
HER CREDIT. SOMANI IS THE
PROTAGONIST OF VOICES FROM…;
IT’S WRITTEN BY NITA MUKERJEE
AND SOMANI’S DAUGHTER NANDINI
PATODIA AND PUBLISHED BY
VENATESHWAR SOMANI CHARITABLE
TRUST. SOMANI—FROM THE FAMILY
THAT RUNS THE SOMANI GROUP
OF INDUSTRIES—RELEASED HER
FIRST ALBUM IN 1965 AT A FAMILY
WEDDING AS WOMEN IN THOSE
YEARS WERE BARRED FROM SINGING
PUBLICLY. OVER THE YEARS,
WHENEVER SHE WAS IN RAJASTHAN,
SHE WOULD CALL TRIBAL SINGERS
HOME TO LEARN FROM THEM AND
DOCUMENT THEIR ART. IN THE
PROCESS, SHE HERSELF HAS WRITTEN
SCORES OF MARWARI FOLK SONGS,
WHICH SHE HAS RECORDED AT HER
OWN STUDIO SET UP IN HER HOUSE
ON NAPEAN SEA ROAD IN MUMBAI.
TO BUY THE BOOK (` 500), ONE CAN
MAKE A DONATION TO THE TRUST IN
CASH OR BY CHEQUE.
5/25/12 7:53 PM
Etcetera
Photographs by Hemant
Patil
The turn of times
ARTIST ANNE DELORME HAS SEAMLESSLY MOVED FROM SCULPTURES TO WRITING. IT’S THE IDEA
THAT MATTERS NOT THE MEDIUM, SHE TELLS RADHIKA RAJE
S
he was 20 years old when she first experimented
Now 63, Delorme understood complex emotions early in
with painting. And Pune-based artist Anne Delorme
life. Born in Madhya Pradesh to a Catholic Army Ballistics
still finds the idea of capturing people’s expressions
expert, she was one among five sisters and a brother in her
and emotions intriguing—whether it is through her
large family. She followed all the rules of Christianity till
passion for sculpting or her brand new interest in writing.
a rebellious streak took over and she decided to ques“The first sculpture I made was an experience
tion every road her religion prompted her to take.
I will never forget and yet would never want to
Delorme sculpted Sunday Rose, a woman gazing at
MULTIMEDIA sky, a cross around her neck and questioning hands,
replicate,” she says. Once while working with
molten metal that needed to be moulded, a huge
during this period of discovery. “I wanted to know
flame shot up and resulted in an explosion. “Leaving the
why we do everything our religion asks us to. I wanted to
mould as it was, I ran for my life.” A disfigured yet beautiknow why we couldn’t carve out our own ideas,” she says,
ful shaped sculpture that came out of the blast is her most
visibly agitated. Another sculpted figure, The Priest, echoes
treasured work of art.
similar thoughts.
5/25/12 7:53 PM
Etcetera
“Exploring human psyche through different mediums fascinates me and inspires my
creativity,” says this second-generation Anglo
Indian artist. “I like expressing myself through
sculptures as they are my way of giving shape
to ever-bursting ideas.” Little wonder then,
that all her sculptures are human figurines. All
of them have a ‘real’ face, though unknown to
her but obviously one she saw sometime and
liked or found interesting; “I can’t imagine
faces,” she says. Selective about displaying her work, Delorme has held few shows;
nevertheless, her figurines have managed to
grab enough attention in art galleries across
Mumbai and Pune.
Her passion for sculpture also helped Delorme
rediscover love. After the sad demise of her
first husband, she has now found someone who
shares her interests. “We are both retired, absolutely love dogs and cast sculptures together. It’s perfect,” says Delorme as she lovingly
looks at her companion Bharat Gordhandas
carrying food for their dogs in their enormous
house surrounded by plants and trees. Delorme
and Gordhandas find peace in time spent with
their dogs. “They are my babies,” she says, as
her pets return her affectionate look.
Three years ago—after a lifetime of sketching
on paper, painting on canvas, carving marble
and casting in metal—Delorme started playing
with words. “As I joined the pieces of metal,
I realised my work was my diary and I should
translate it.” Though she faced several problems, she pursued her ambition of publishing
a book. “It’s very difficult to get a publisher
who likes your idea,” she recalls her journey,
ending with Global Vision Press that immediately loved her work and agreed to release
it as The Growing Years (Incidents in the Life
of a Family), a fictional account drawn from
her own family and roots only to be retold as
a tale of complex relationships and cultures.
Delorme will soon release Seasons of a Window
Man, a tale of urban decay in a city of rapid
urbanisation.
With so many shades to her personality, Delorme wants more out of life. “I enjoy gardening,”
she says, taking us out into a well-maintained
garden. “It takes time, but it is so rewarding to
be able to say, at the end of the day, that the
painting, sculpture, a book, or just a patch of
barren land that I turned into a garden, have
all fully captured my thoughts and ideas.”
5/25/12 7:53 PM
Etcetera
ENLIGHTEN
Never forget that when we are silent, we
are one. And when we speak we are two.
—Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
Hashtag Activism
n. Activism that uses a Twitter hashtag to promote a project or cause,
particularly when it requires no other action from people.
Example: As a reporter, I don't sign up for various causes, but as someone
who lives—far too much—in the world of social media, I can feel the pull
of digital activism. And I have to admit I'm starting to experience a kind of
‘favouriting’ fatigue—meaning that the digital causes of the day or week are
all starting to blend together. Another week, another hashtag, and with it, a
question about what is actually being accomplished.
—David Carr, “Hashtag activism, and its limits”, The New York Times,
25 March 2012
EXPENDITURE CASCADE
n. A cascade of spending that results from consumption by the wealthy,
which triggers emulative spending by the next lower class, which triggers
spending by the class below that, and so on.
Example: The increase in two-earner households explains only part of it. The
climb in the toil index was also driven by the easy credit that fuelled the
housing bubble, as well as by an expenditure cascade in housing caused by
growing income disparities.
—Richard H Thaler, “I just got here, but I know trouble when I see it”,
The New York Times, 31 December 2011
Pink Slime
n. An industrial meat by-product consisting of compressed low quality
beef trimmings treated with ammonia gas and used as a filler for ground
beef.
Example: Pink slime will be off the menu this fall for schools in
the National School Lunch Programme that don't want by-products
containing what's known officially as “lean finely textured beef ”, the US
Department of Agriculture has decided.... Marion Nestle, a professor
of nutrition at New York University who wrote the book Safe Food, says
the USDA is trying to manage a public relations problem, not a health
concern: “Pink slime may be safe, nutritious, and cheap, but it's yucky. It's
kind of like pet food.”
—Elizabeth Weise, “USDA: Schools can decide if pink slime is used in
lunches”, USA Today, 14 March 2012
SNOWFA
n. A sofa made out of snow
Example: Like 100-million-plus
American TV viewers, the anthropomorphic Coke polar bears will be
watching Sunday's game live. And
the ad they star in during the second
quarter will reflect what's happening on the field. A first-quarter,
30-second ad will introduce the bears
chilling out on their snowfa, rooting
for opposing teams.
—T L Stanley, “Coke's polar bears
return to Super Bowl”, Los Angeles
Times, 5 February 2012
Porching
pp. Relaxing or socialising on the
front porch of a house.
Example: “We've even coined a new
word, porching, which describes
a spontaneous social activity that
originates when people gather on
porches,” she explained.
—Margaret LeRoux, “Best of both
worlds: Cohousing offers neighbourly
lifestyle and a place of your own”,
Worcester Telegram & Gazette,
5 March 2012
Diarrheaist
n. A person who shares too much
online, particularly personal
information.
Example: Dan, I was thinking ‘The
Wine Diarrheaist’, unless that
impinges upon Mike's intellectual
property rights.
—Bill Klapp, “License to swill?
(comment)”, Wine Diarist,
12 June 2011
97-14 Etcetera 3.indd 76
5/25/12 7:54 PM
5/25/12 7:54 PM
JUNE 12/Mag
5/25/12 7:54 PM
Etcetera
ENLIGHTEN
Billion Laughs
n. An online attack that attempts to
disable a website by sending a specially formatted sequence of characters
such as ‘lol’ and ‘ha’.
Example: Wouter Coekaerts discovered that ejabberd, a distributed
XMPP/Jabber server written in Erlang, is vulnerable to the so-called
billion laughs attack because it does
not prevent entity expansion on received data.
—“Debian Security Advisory: DSA2248-1 ejabberd - denial of service”,
Debian, 31 March 2011
Hackerazzi
n. A person who breaks into a celebrity's email account or computer.
Example: With his head hung low,
Jacksonville's so-called Hackerazzi
admits he hacked into the email
accounts of celebrities. Christopher
Chaney faces up to 60 years in prison
after pleading guilty to wiretapping and unauthorised access to a
computer.
—Rich Jones, “Hate crimes claim”,
Morning News Recap (WOKV),
27 March 2012
One
person
with a belief
is equal to a
force of 99
who only have
interests.
—British philosopher John
Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Success Disaster
n. Massive problems created when a person or company is unable to handle
an overwhelming success.
Example: To avoid a success disaster scenario, the unified media software
platform should scale to fit capacity requirements as small as a few hundred
simultaneous subscribers up to much larger audiences.
—Alex Dobrushin, “Multiscreen delivery”, Broadcast Engineering,
15 August 2011
THE NONES
n. People who claim to have no religious affiliation.
Example: The fastest growing religious group in the US is the category
of people who say they have no religious affiliation. Sometimes called
the nones by social scientists, their numbers have more than doubled since
the 1990s.
—Amy Sullivan, “The Rise of the Nones”, TIME, 12 March 2012
BUZZ
Tales on tap
Ever had a story running behind you wanting to be read? That
is exactly what Project Joys of Reading promises. To encourage
the love of the written word, this group will send you a story a week
through email; each one focuses on human values with an aim to reflect
upon the fundamental and ethical principles of our world. Subscribe for
free by sending your name and email address to [email protected] or
log in to website storiesforeveryone.com. You can also submit your own
short stories!
5/25/12 7:54 PM
the most
important
ball
wicca
BILLIARDS
the
immortals
HINDUISM CHINESE
COSMOLOGY
building
CHINESE NUCLEAR
COSMOLOGY PHYSICS numerology
buddhism
wicca Christianity
the
second
magic
number
kabbalah
numerology
Christianity Egyptian
Mythology
wicca
HINDUISM
Egyptian
CHINESE
COSMOLOGY
wicca
Mythology
Christianity
Egyptian
primordial
deities of
creation
kabbalah Mythology
NUCLEAR NUCLEAR wicca
PHYSICS
PHYSICS
CHINESE wicca
BILLIARDS
numerology
wicca COSMOLOGY HINDUISM
BUDDHISM
the noble
path
CHINESE NUCLEAR billiards
COSMOLOGY PHYSICS numerology
buddhism
wicca Christianity
kabbalah
numerology
beyond
nature
and its
limitations
Christianity Egyptian
Mythology
NUCLEAR
PHYSICS
CHINESE
COSMOLOGY
wicca
wicca
prosperity,
abundance
Mythology
Christianity
Egyptian
kabbalah Mythology
BILLIARDS
NUCLEAR wicca
PHYSICS
HINDUISM
CHINESE
COSMOLOGY
CHINESE
BUDDHISM COSMOLOGY
numerology
new
beginning,
resurrection,
regeneration
wicca
HINDUISM
Egyptian
numerology
NUCLEAR
PHYSICS
CHRISTIANITY WICCA
wheel of
the year
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
numerology
80 harmony celebrate age may 2012
97-28 Last page.indd 80
5/25/12 7:55 PM
Cover Inside June 12.indd 3
5/25/12 7:20 PM

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